TURNING A BLIND EYE

AROUND six million people claim Universal Credit.

These are not scroungers as the Government would like us to believe. The number increased significantly because of Covid.

Forty per cent of claimants are already in employment. Another 18% cannot work because of their disability. When the Government increased Universal Credit by £20 a week during the early stages of the pandemic, increasing the basic amount to a not generous £409 a month, it was regarded as a lifesaver to many.

But now the Government has decided to remove the uplift worth £1,000 a year by October 6, in the largest benefit cut in the history of the welfare state.

This, along with rising energy costs and taxes, will cause real hardship to low income families, increasing homelessness and poverty, and will suck money out of local high streets just when they need it most.

The Government say the cut is all about getting people back into work, but seem to become deaf when it is pointed out that many recipients are already in employment, often in low paid jobs.

The Government’s own Pensions Minister believes claimants only need to work an extra two hours to make up for the lost amount, but displays her ignorance of Universal Credit’s complex rules about clawback of benefit for working extra hours; it is calculated an extra nine hours a week would need to be worked to make up the £20 loss, very difficult for someone already in full time employment.

Charities, the United Nations poverty envoy, the Labour opposition and even some Tory MPs are asking the Government to think again, but it seems that millions of struggling working families are not the priority for Boris Johnson’s Government.

Phil Tate