LONDON (CU)_Last week, United Kingdom’s Work and Pensions Minister Thérèse Coffey confirmed that the £20 uplift in universal credit and tax credits, which was introduced amid the pandemic last year, will be cut back to pre-pandemic levels at the end of September. Explaining its decision, the government said as the economy opens up and begins to recover from the pandemic, the uplift will no longer be needed. However, a new research has discovered that the benefit cut would leave jobless families unable to live decently, and therefore, pressure is mounting on ministers to retain the COVID uplift.
According to the study commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), the cut in the Universal Credit rates will leave out-of-work families with children with income that amounts to half of what is needed to maintain a socially-acceptable basic standard of living. Here, a range of costs, including food, clothing, transport, technology and leisure were taken into account when determining the basic living standards.
This minimum annual income standard was developed by the Centre for Research in Social Policy of the Loughborough University, which tracked changing public notions of what is a modest ‘no-frills’ existence and thereby calculated the what it costs and how close are different-sized households to that benchmark. For instance, it found that a personal computer and access to internet are no longer a luxury but a vital necessity. On the other hand, as public transport declined across the country, a second-hand car became a must have for families with children.
Accordingly, under this standard, it was discovered that a single adult with no children would need £213 a week, while a working-age couple with two children below 10 years would need £482 a week. A £191 a week will be needed for a pensioner couple to meet this minimum socially-acceptable standard of living.
Accordingly, ministers are facing mounting pressure, from the public, the opposition as well as the government’s backbenches to retain the £20 uplift. However, Downing Street insists that the additional benefit should be withdrawn as the government should focus on supporting the public through its multi-billion-pound plan for jobs.
Previously, Labour chair of the work and pensions committee, Stephen Timms, highlighted the fact that the withdrawal of the uplift, which would push jobless benefits to the lowest level in three decades, would leave half a million people below the poverty line. “I think that the answer to that is to get people into work,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson replied.
