PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak has been ordered to publish secret documents showing the impact of his cut to Universal Credit.
As Chancellor, Sunak scrapped the £20-a-week uplift introduced during the pandemic in March 2020 despite being urged not to do so by the likes of footballer Marcus Rashford.
The Government has subsequently refused to publish analysis examining the impact of not extending the support.
However, the Information Commissioners' Office (ICO) has now demanded the Treasury disclose the details.
The support was worth around £1000 a year and was a temporary measure to help vulnerable families through the coronavirus crisis.
It came to an end in October 2021 despite warnings it could plunge 800,000 people into poverty.
Last summer the Treasury refused to release any analysis of ending the support when requested by The Mirror. They argued it would "not be in the public interest due to the harm it would cause to policy development and delivering for welfare benefit claimants".
But in a decision notice - sent to the paper just hours before the General Election was called - the ICO ordered the Treasury to publish the information "within 30 calendar days".
It means the Government has until June 21 to publish the details, just two weeks before the UK hits the polls.
In its judgement, the ICO said: "The commissioner has concluded, that the public interest favours disclosure of the request information. In reaching this view, the Commissioner has given particular weight to the fact that the policy to which the statistics relate is no longer live.
"He has also given weight to the fact that the policy was one which was developed in the unique circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a strong public interest in knowing as much as possible about what information the government was considering in that unprecedented and challenging period."
During the investigation, the Treasury told the ICO it did not conduct "a formal impact assessment relating to the conclusion of this temporary policy", but it admitted information was held "that details our analysis on the impacts of further extensions, which can be used to show the impact of not extending the uplift".
It added: "The uplift was initially put in place temporarily between April 2020 and March 2021. In March 2021, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced it would be extended for a further 6 months. This policy was always designed as temporary so the information in scope relates to analysis completed prior to the 6-month extension".
