Backbenchers in plea for Universal Credit cash injection

SENIOR Tories have issued a last-ditch appeal to Philip Hammond for an injection of cash to Universal Credit, calling on the Chancellor to “do the right thing”.

More than 20 backbenchers, including Justine Greening, the former education secretary and Ed Vaizey, the ex-culture minister, urged Mr Hammond to reverse cuts made in 2015.

They also asked the Chancellor to review the five-week period for which the most vulnerable claimants have to wait for their first payments. The group want him to spend up to £3billion to fully restore the “work allowance” part of the scheme. Cuts by George Osborne reduced the sum claimants can earn before they start losing benefits.

The intervention comes as research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that 1.6million children are trapped in poverty in the UK despite their parents working the hours required of them by the benefits system. Heidi Allen, a Conservative member of the Commons work and pensions committee, said: “It is only by restoring the work allowances to their original designed level that the system will provide the vital financial safety for low paid workers.”

A joint statement, led by Mrs Allen and also signed by Johnny Mercer, the backbencher, and Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, said: “Unless we make this transformative investment, 3.2million working families are expected to be worse off.” They add: “Expecting families with nothing, to wait for five weeks, does not fit with compassionate Conservative values.”

Today, David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, backs their call to reverse the 2015 cuts to the welfare system, in an article in this newspaper.

A report from the work and pensions committee insists the Government “must not proceed” with moving existing benefits claimants on to the scheme until “a new, flexible, discretionary approach to debt management” is in place.