A cross-communal group of 27 rabbis have written to George Osborne asking him to give impoverished families their “human dignity” back.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is due to present his Budget on Wednesday containing £12bn worth of cuts, which the rabbis fear will place more families in poverty.

The collection of mostly Progressive rabbis also called on Mr Osborne to “change the rhetoric of blaming the low paid and instead to implement methods that will alleviate low pay”.

After citing Judaism as their moral touchstone for battling poverty, they also urged the chancellor to “reconsider the punitive benefit sanctions that throw people into financial crisis”, especially as Britain was “one of the richest countries in the world”.

The rabbis observed that “there are still 2.3 million children living in households where the income is 60 per cent lower than the median household income”.

The letter finished: “Please Mr Osborne, give them, and us, back our human dignity.”

Among the other signatories were Rabbi Paul Freedman - the chair of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis - Rabbi Jeremy Gordon, the minister at New London Synagogue, Natan Levy - an Orthodox minister - and Alexandra Wright of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue.