× Search rightsnet
Search options

Where

Benefit

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

From

to

9 September, 2020 Open access

Joseph Rowntree Foundation calls on government to make £20 a week uplift to universal credit and working tax credit permanent and extend it to legacy benefits

New briefing highlights risk that 700,000 more people will be pulled into poverty if uplift ends, as planned, in April 2021

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has called on the government to make the £20 a week uplift to universal credit and working tax credit permanent, and extend it to legacy benefits

In a new briefing, Autumn Budget - why we must keep the £20 social security lifeline, the Foundation highlights that the £20 per week uplift - that was introduced in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic - is due to end in 2021, with the result that around 16 million people will feel an overnight loss of £1,040 per year. This, the JRF says, will disproportionately hit those on the lowest incomes and families with children and risk 700,000 more people, including 300,000 more children, being pulled into poverty.

The JRF also analyses the impact of the government's decision to exclude people claiming employment and support allowance (ESA), income support and jobseeker's allowance (JSA) from the £20 per week uplift, finding that most of these claimants are sick or disabled people and carers - for whom heightened health risks, additional challenges associated with social distancing and the withdrawal of essential services has made life even more difficult. Extending the uplift to these legacy benefits, the JRF says, would boost the incomes of 1.5 million people, including 300,000 children in some of the families who are most at risk.

Calling therefore for the government to make the £20 uplift to the standard allowance of universal credit and basic element of working tax credit permanent, and extend it to ESA, income support and JSA, the JRF says  -

'The immediate priority must be to keep this lifeline and stop it from being whipped away overnight from around 16 million people in April, cutting many of us adrift and pushing us deeper into hardship. The government must continue to do the right thing to keep families afloat - and in doing so, should throw this lifeline to people on legacy benefits, who have been left behind and include some of the most at-risk people in our country.'

The briefing Autumn Budget - why we must keep the £20 social security lifeline is available from jrf.org.uk