A series of welfare cuts over the next few years will leave families thousands of pounds worse off, the TUC has claimed.
A family with two children, with both parents in minimum wage jobs, could lose £2,700 a year by April 2013, the union organisation said.
Between April 2011 and April 2013, the Government is introducing a series of welfare cuts which include reducing the amount of childcare costs that can be met by tax credits, freezing elements of working tax credit and child benefit, ending government payments to the child trust fund, and ending child benefit for higher rate taxpayers, said a TUC report.
In addition, switching the measure for uprating benefits from RPI to CPI will reduce the value of key benefits over time, saving the Treasury £5.8 billion by April 2015, the union group added.
Housing benefit cuts will also lead to "significant reductions" in family incomes, including those of many working households, said the TUC.
General secretary Brendan Barber said: "The Government's 'no losers' welfare pledge will ring hollow if families suffer thousands of pounds worth of cuts in the years running up to the switch to universal credit.
"Workers are already suffering an income squeeze and government austerity will make low and middle income families even worse off. Welfare cuts of over £2,700 a year on top of service cuts like the end of free antenatal classes and the closure of Sure Start centres are the worst possible conditions in which to introduce universal credit.
"The TUC wants to see the removal of barriers that penalise workers for earning more money while they're trying to get off benefits, but rushed reforms which are based on swinging welfare cuts risk creating a whole new set of obstacles to work, leaving many families worse or little better off than they are now.
"The Government cannot allow short-term cost cutting to undermine long-term welfare reform."
According to the TUC analysis, a two-child family with both parents in full-time jobs paying the minimum wage, will lose £2,756 over the next two years because of measures including the child benefit freeze, abolition of the child trust fund and baby element of child tax credit and reduction in childcare costs met by tax credits.
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