Responding to the announcement in the Budget of a six-month
extension to the £20 weekly increase in Universal Credit,
Rt Hon MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee,
said:
“An extension of six months will come as a welcome relief to
families who were otherwise facing a substantial cut in their
income at the end of this month. But by failing to commit to
making the £20 increase in Universal Credit permanent—or even
maintaining it for the next 12 months—the Chancellor has missed
the perfect chance to guarantee some financial security to
families who have faced a stressful year struggling to get by. It
will be very hard to justify cutting benefits by £20 per week in
September, at the very moment the furlough scheme is due to end
and many jobs are, sadly, likely to be lost.
The Government must now use this time to come up with a
long-term plan to make sure the benefits system can properly
support people right the way through the next stage of our
economic recovery. That must also include help for people on
legacy benefits—including many disabled people and carers—who
have received no additional support to help them through the
pandemic. In this Budget, the Government has once again ignored
their needs. It cannot be acceptable that people are excluded
from support simply because—through no fault of their own—they
are claiming older benefits.”
In a report
last month, the Committee called for the £20 per week
increase in UC and Working Tax Credit, introduced at the start of
the pandemic, to be maintained for another year ‘at the very
least’. The recommendation followed on from a report
in October calling for the increase to be made permanent.
The Committee also recommended that the Government abandon
plans for one-off payments to people claiming UC and WTC.
The Committee’s report in June said
that the Government must not ‘simply ignore the needs’ of people
claiming so-called ‘legacy’ benefits, which include
Jobseekers Allowance, Employment Support Allowance and Child Tax
Credits
