LONDON (CU)_In March last year, when the government of the United Kingdom began to respond to surging COVID-19 infections, a £20 rise in universal credit and tax credits was introduced as a one-year measure with the aim of helping claimants adjust to the extra costs they bore on account of the pandemic. And in March 2021 the government decided to extend this uplift for six more months, and accordingly, Work and Pensions Minister Thérèse Coffey confirmed on Wednesday (7 July) that the basic universal credit rates will be cut back to pre-pandemic levels at the end of September, despite widespread public and cross-party opposition.
Announcing the decision, the minister told a committee of MPs that she intends to inform all 6 million universal credit claimants in writing prior to the planning withdrawal. According to estimates, the £20 rise introduced in March 2020 helped 700,000 people to stay above the poverty line over the past year and therefore the many claim that the withdrawal of the uplift will be putting the living standards of low-income families at risk.
Nevertheless, the government argues that as the economy opens up and begins to recover from the pandemic, the uplift will no longer be needed. On the other hand, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his aim right now is to move people into better-paid work. “As we move beyond that, we have to have a different emphasis, and the emphasis has to be on getting people into work and getting people into jobs. That’s what we’re doing,” he told the Commons liaison committee.
Meanwhile, 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,” PM Johnson replied.
