Business, education and community groups across the North East have urged the Prime Minister and Chancellor to abandon rumoured benefits changes which they say would be “cruel and completely avoidable”.
Reports have been growing in recent days that the Government is planning not to increase benefits in line with inflation, instead pegging any rise to average wage increases. Former Ministers and Conservative MPs have voiced strong opposition to the plans, but Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have refused to rule out the controversial move.
Now a wide coalition of groups in the North East have written to Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng to say that below-inflation increases in Universal Credit and other benefits would increase the already high levels of hardship in the North East and worsen child poverty in the region, which already has the highest level in the UK. Groups including the North East England Chamber of Commerce, Schools North East, Children North East and the North East Child Poverty Commission have signed the letter, which has also been sent to all MPs in the region.
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The letter says: “More than half – 52% – of all babies, children and young people growing up in the North East are in families relying on Universal Credit or equivalent legacy benefits. Most of these families are in low paid work, or recognised by Government as being unable to work due to disability or caring responsibilities.
“They have already faced a significant real terms cut to their income this year, as social security has failed to keep pace with inflation – on top of several years of freezes to this support, which had already left our safety net inadequate and threadbare. Failing to ensure social security support keeps pace with the cost of household essentials will push low income families across the North East – a region with the UK’s highest rate of child poverty – into even greater levels of hardship. This is both cruel and completely avoidable.
“It will also put even greater pressure on our overstretched public services and voluntary sector organisations, currently facing unsustainable growth in demand for support and massive budgetary pressures. It will damage our regional economy at a critical juncture, as families have even less money to spend with local businesses. And it will completely undermine the Government’s ‘levelling up’ commitments to improve the living standards and opportunities of children and young people in regions like ours.”
Speculation has been mounting that the current UK Government could oversee a real-terms cuts to benefits in a bid to reduce public spending. Ms Truss and her Cabinet allies have so far declined to say whether welfare payments will be increased in line with soaring inflation.
The letter to the Prime Minister and Chancellor has been signed by a range of Citizens’ Advice organisations around the North East, charity body Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East and a number of youth and health organisations.
Anna Turley, a former Labour MP who is chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission, said: “Today’s joint letter from organisations working in different sectors right across our region sends a powerful message to the Prime Minister and Chancellor that we want so much more and better for children growing up here in the North East. That requires sustained investment in families and young people – and recognising the role that a strong social security safety net should play in this – not making life even harder for those already struggling to keep their heads above water.”
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