Calls for a further boost for millions of low-income households have been put forward. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been asked to consider a £25 a week uplift for people on universal credit as millions continue to battle the cost of living crisis.
The government has been asked to reverse the decision in 2021 to scrap a temporary uplift to universal credit, Birmingham Live reports. For 18 months recipients were given a £20 per week increase to help them cope with the economic impact of Covid and lockdowns. A similar amount also went to tax credits claimants.
But that boost, which added up to £1,560, was scrapped in October 2021 with the DWP saying it was only ever meant to be short term. A legal battle by people on other benefits to get the same amount in backpay was later turned down by the Court of Appeal.
This week David Linden, Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Social Justice) and a member of the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, has called for the uplift to be reinstated. He wants it to be a higher amount of £25 a week and given not just to universal credit claimants but also to other means-tested benefits, meaning they would all see payments increased by £100 a month.
He told MPs: "The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's latest cost of living tracker found that 5.7 million low-income households are having to cut down or skip meals because they do not have enough money for food, while the number going without items such as food, heating and basic toiletries has remained at about 7 million for more than a year - all of that in the sixth largest economy in the world.
"The basic rate of universal credit is now at its lowest level as a proportion of average earnings. Indeed, the JRF's latest cost of living tracker warns that about nine in ten low-income households on UC have gone without at least one essential for the third survey in over a year.
"Rather than offering one-off payments to shore up struggling families' incomes, the DWP should reverse the damaging policies that are impacting the most vulnerable people. It should reinstate the universal credit uplift at £25 per week and, of course, extend it to legacy benefits. Let us not forget the 2.5 million disabled people who were cruelly left behind without that uplift during the pandemic."
Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the £20 a week boost to universal credit had taken 379,000 people out of poverty in 2021/2022. It added that a further change that lowered the 'taper rate' - the amount of universal credit that is docked as people's wages go up - had lifted 133,000 individuals out of poverty.
Mr Linden urged the government to "reverse their devastating cuts to the universal credit top-up, increase it to £25 per week and extend it to means-tested legacy benefits." Guy Opperman, Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, responded by saying: "Universal credit, as we see, provides a massive amount of support on an ongoing basis, which is targeted to help those most impacted by rising prices throughout this financial year."
"Targeted support includes support for people on means-tested benefits such as universal credit, with up to three cost of living payments totalling up to £900. We have delivered the first £301 payment to 8.3 million households in support worth £2.5 billion. The two further payments of £300 and £299 will be made in the autumn and next spring.
"To help with additional costs, we have paid the disability cost of living payment to six million people as well as paying the winter fuel support payment. A huge amount is being done in jobcentres, whether that is through the in-work progression offer, the support of extra work coaches, the over-50s support, the administrative earnings threshold support or the 37 new district progression leads who are working with key partners, including local government, employers and skilled providers, to identify and develop local opportunities and to overcome barriers that limit progression."
