Mums will have to return to work when their children go to school.

Mothers in Haringey are terrified of changes to the benefits system, an outreach worker has said.

Monique Knight – a mother of five and founder of social enterprise group Supamums – told a Haringey Council meeting that women are “very scared” of changes requiring them to work as soon as their youngest child is school-age and ups their working hours from 16 to 24 hours a week.

Ms Knight, whose company helps mothers back into work, said the emphasis on retail or childcare when retraining these women was not helping.

She said: “The changes are having a huge effect. The mothers are very scared of the changes. The Job Centre is literally throwing clients our way. There has not been too much warning to prepare for this.

“Until we can provide more training opportunities we are not going to reach people – we cannot have all these childminders and all these people going on customer service courses and then not getting jobs in Tesco.”

Ms Knight said she had managed to find a career and start her own business with the help of the Future Jobs Fund, which was scrapped as part of the Government cuts.