Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
WELCOME NEWS, BUT IT DOESN’T SUIT ALL
UK chancellor Rishi Sunak served up a buffet of billion pound measures in a minibudget address last Wednesday to support businesses, furloughed workers and stimulate the economy.
Among the headlines was a Treasury commitment to pay half the cost of meals to a maximum of £10 per head for those eating out between Mondays and Wednesdays in August. Additionally, a business bonus of £1,000 was announced for all furloughed staff still in employment in January 2021; £2 billion was also pledged to pay the wages for under-25s taken off Universal Credit and given a job.
It was welcome news although the “Eat out to Help Out” initiative announced in Sunak’s address is not likely to benefit those on lower incomes who cannot afford to eat out in the first place. It also does little to lift the floor longterm underneath young workers who cannot receive the full £8.21 National Living Wage recipients benefit from until they reach 25 years of age.
Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance, welcomed the budget but said: “(To loosen) the grip of poverty means ending the benefit cap, making advance Universal Credit payments non-repayable and ensuring benefits actually meet people’s needs.”
A new dawn of compassionate Conservatism I suspect this is not, but nor was it the austerityobsessed Conservatism of Cameron and Osborne and, for that, many millions of beneficiaries across Britain will remain eternally grateful.