Six months is not long enough. Children need the £20 Universal Credit uplift to be kept in place for at least a year.
As we look ahead to Wednesday’s Budget and wait for a decision on the £20pw Universal Credit uplift, we are hoping to see it kept in place for at least a year. Families have repeatedly told us they need this money to feed their children and heat their homes. A decision to take away this support in six months’ time would leave families unable to cope and recover from the crisis.
Alongside families, charities, think tanks and cross-party politicians, Save the Children has argued that the uplift should be made permanent, and the majority of the public agree. At this week’s Budget, the Chancellor could commit to keeping it in place for at least a year and extend it to those on legacy benefits who never received it and have been left to struggle throughout this crisis.
Low-income families hit hard by the pandemic
By putting the uplift in place, the UK government showed it clearly understood that low-income families would be hit incredibly hard by the crisis - and this has certainly been the case. In research we conducted with over 3,000 families on low incomes, we found that 70% of parents had had to cut back on essentials, due to financial issues caused by the pandemic and parents had predominantly used the uplift to buy food, followed by paying rent and bills, along with buying items for school.
It is the children in these families that Marcus Rashford put front and centre of people’s minds during the pandemic. He gave children a voice who otherwise wouldn’t have had one by sharing his own experience of child food poverty. As we now start to think about recovery from the pandemic, these children face the possibility of losing £20 a week in support - plus an additional 730,000 children could be pushed into poverty. This isn’t right. These children must be put front and centre of the UK government’s recovery plan.
The £20 uplift is a lifeline for many
The uplift has been widely recognised as a lifeline for families and it’s becoming increasingly clear that this is the role it would play come October. Only last week we found out that Universal Credit claimants have doubled since the start of the pandemic to six million and economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predict unemployment will peak later this year - remaining very high for at least a year.
Putting the uplift in place at the start of the crisis was the right thing to do. Taking it away in six months’ time when unemployment is expected to peak would not be right or fair for families. It also provides no support to the two million people receiving legacy benefits.
Now is the time to provide certainty for families
Extending the uplift for the next financial year would provide certainty for families and policymakers and support the economy through another very difficult year as this is money that will be spent and put back into the economy.
It’s clear what needs to happen here.
The UK government must keep the £20pw Universal Credit uplift in place for at least a year and extend it to those on legacy benefits, to ensure all low-income families are given the opportunity to recover from this crisis.
URGE YOUR MP TO KEEP THE UPLIFT
Urge your MP today to push the Government to keep the £20pw Universal Credit lifeline for at least another 12 months for families fighting poverty.
