MPs are to vote on controversial government plans to put a 1% cap on annual rises in working-age benefits and some tax credits until 2016.
Benefits have historically risen in line with the rate of inflation, and increased by more than 5% in 2012-3.
Labour, which opposes the change, says it will result in a real-terms cut in support for millions of working people.
The coalition says public sector pay is capped at 1% and benefits should not be rising at a faster rate than wages.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said the move was part of coalition plans to deal with the deficit.
"We don't take this decision lightly but we have to get this deficit under control or this country will be bankrupt, like Greece and like Spain, and we'll have huge borrowing costs," he told BBC Breakfast.
Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg have said they do not "relish" imposing the cap but argue billions of pounds of further savings are needed and have challenged Labour to come up with an alternative.
Legislation is needed to implement changes announced by Chancellor George Osborne in last month's Autumn Statement - to cap increases in jobseeker's allowance, employment and support allowance, income support and elements of housing benefit at 1% for three years from April.
'Fairer way'The cap would also apply to maternity allowance, sick pay, maternity pay and paternity pay as well as the couple and lone parent elements of the working tax credit and the child element of the child tax credit.
These benefits traditionally rise in line with consumer prices in an annual process known as uprating.
- Jobseeker's Allowance
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Income Support
- Elements of housing benefit
- Maternity allowance
- Sick Pay, Maternity Pay, Paternity Pay, Adoption Pay
- Couple and lone parent elements of working tax credits and the child element of the child tax credit
They increased 5.2% this year and without the planned change would have been set to rise by 2.2% - the rate of CPI inflation last September on which the figure is calculated. The rate of inflation has since risen to 2.7%.
Mr Duncan Smith said welfare payments had risen about 20% over the past five or six years while incomes rose only 10% over the same period.
Ahead of Tuesday's vote, Labour leader Ed Miliband said the move showed the government had the wrong priorities, contrasting the planned cap with its decision to cut the top rate of tax for those earning more than £150,000 a year.
"By cutting the support that working families get - and more than 60% of those affected by the changes we are voting on are working families - that is going to be handicapping and stopping working families who want to get into work and do the right thing," he said.
He rejected reports some Labour MPs had misgivings about being seen to back an inflation-linked rise in benefits when most people had seen a real-terms cut in wages in recent years.
"What we are voting for is a fairer way forward," he said.
"What we are saying is at a time when you are cutting taxes for the richest in society, that you penalise the most vulnerable in society and those going out to work, those people doing the right thing, the strivers that Mr Cameron says he stands for, it absolutely does not add up and it is the wrong thing to do."
Labour's job guaranteeShadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said: "Why should you give back £3bn to Britain's billionaires and take £6bn away from predominantly... working families?"
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Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne: ''This is a Bill that doesn't do what it says on the tin because it does nothing to get Britain back to work''
Labour said it wanted to introduce a compulsory job guarantee - where a person unemployed for a couple of years will no longer receive jobseekers allowance, and they will have to take a job, or be helped towards getting one.
"That's the right way to bring the welfare spend down - by getting people into jobs, not by taking another a big chunk of money out of people's tax credits," Mr Byrne told BBC Breakfast.
Former Liberal Democrat minister Sarah Teather has said will oppose the government's proposal, saying she was "deeply anxious" about the impact it would have on the poorest in society and accusing ministers of using language reminiscent of "playground politics" to justify the move.
It is not clear how many other Lib Dem MPs are likely to defy the government but the coalition is still expected to win the vote - expected at around 1900 GMT - on the second reading of the welfare benefits uprating bill.
'Reasonable'Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes said the move was "reasonable" given the "decent" rise in benefits in recent years and pressure on pay in the public and private sectors.
"If you are trying to pay off the deficit and the debt... then we have to look for savings," he said.
The cap, which will not apply to disability benefits, the state pension or pension credit, is estimated to generate annual savings of £1.9bn in cash terms by 2016.
The Department for Work and Pensions published research last week suggesting jobless benefits rose by 20% in the last five years, compared with an average 12% rise in private sector pay.
"For years, the gap between those who earn and those who live on benefits has grown - and this government is restoring fairness to the system," Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps said.
But campaigners argue the changes will see many families struggling.
"From a nurse with two children losing £424 a year by 2015, to the Army second lieutenant with three children losing £552 a year, this will hit children and families from all walks of life," Matthew Reed, chief executive of The Children's Society, said.
"Failure to make sure that benefit rates at the very least reflect rises in the cost of living will deepen inequality and increase poverty."
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