Jack Monroe’s powerful comments to the work and pensions select committee tell us more about the social security system than some MPs might have realised (Cost of living crisis could be fatal for some UK children, Jack Monroe tells MPs, 9 March).
Eight years ago, Monroe told an all-party parliamentary inquiry into hunger, on which I served as secretary, that “if my benefits had been paid quickly, in full and on time, I would have been able to meet my living costs”. The cruel caps, cuts and freezes to which the social security budget has been subjected since then mean that, in Monroe’s words to the committee last week, even a 6% increase in April “is not going to adequately cover the difference in cost of living, plugging the gap for what people haven’t had for so long”.
