Summer budget 2015: Ethnic minority groups in UK hit hardest by George Osborne's cuts

Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups will be disproportionately impacted by cuts and measures announced in George Osborne's Summer Budget on 8 July.

A study by independent race equality charity Runnymede found that BME people in the UK are over-represented in those groups who will be negatively impacted by measures taken by the new majority Tory government.

Omar Khan, the director of the trust, launched an investigation into the new policies announced in the Summer Budget.

"BME households are more likely to be living in poverty already, so this is likely to make racial inequality even worse," he said. "The Treasury needs to urgently carry out a full equalities impact assessment on the budget and ensure that future budgets are written with the aim of not adversely affecting BME people."

The trust found that, although many BME workers will profit from the introduction of the living wage, this is counterweighted by reductions in tax credits.

Khan also said that BME people are over-represented in groups such as families with more than two children and will therefore feel the burn of the changes in tax credits.

Because of the strain the budget measures have on BME people, the trust urges the government to take action to prevent an increase in racial inequality.

Runnymede said: "To the extent that the budget seeks to contrast 'successful' or 'hard working' people with those 'shirking' or 'on benefits', it effectively denies that discrimination has any role to play in the figures referred to above, or implies that ethnic minorities are fully responsible for their worse employment outcomes."

The findings come after the Institute of Fiscal Study (IFS) found that low-income households are those hit hardest by the budget.

The IFS argued that the living wage announced by Osborne is not enough to offset the impact of the £12bn ($18.7bn) cuts in welfare made by the Conservative government on low-income families.