COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that social security benefit rates ‘bear no relation’ to actual costs of making ends meet, says IPPR

Think tank argues that entitlement under the welfare state needs to be 'future-proofed', possibly through a triple lock as exists for pensions

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted that current social security benefit rates 'bear no relation' to the actual costs of making ends meet, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has said.

In The Chancellor's Challenge: Delivering a stimulus for post-pandemic recovery, the IPPR sets out proposals for a detailed package of spending for the coming year ahead of the Spending Review scheduled for 25 November 2020.

Highlighting that, for those claiming universal credit for the first time during the pandemic, the inadequacy of the social security safety net has been revealed, the IPPR argues that the welfare state must be 'future-proofed' against such shocks in the future.

Among its priorities for the social security system, the IPPR recommends - 

• a 'family stimulus', by increasing the child element of universal credit and child tax credit by £20 per week per child and removing the two-child limit, which would inject £14 billion into the economy and lift 700,000 children out of poverty;
• maintaining the £20 uplift to the basic rate of universal credit when it is due to be removed at the end of March and extending it to legacy benefits;
• extending the uplift in local housing allowance to the 30th percentile of local market rents;
• raising and extending statutory sick pay, including to those with no recourse to public funds; and
• maintaining social security entitlements over time, for instance through a triple lock as exists for pensions.

For more information, see The Chancellor's Challenge: delivering a stimulus for post-pandemic recovery from ippr.org