23 July, 2021 Open access
23 July, 2021 Open access
Notifications issued as the JRF warns that removal of the uplift represents the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since World War II and the foundation of the modern welfare state
Universal credit claimants are being notified today via their online journal accounts that the £20 uplift is to end in the autumn.
Introduced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic the uplift (that has also applied to working tax credit) was initially intended to run for 12 months but was extended for a further 6 months by the Universal Credit (Extension of Coronavirus Measures) Regulations 2021.
Despite recently confirming that it has carried out no assessment of the potential impact of the removal of the uplift - including on claimants with children, with disabilities and with caring responsibilities, and on levels of rent arrears and foodbank use - and while the chairs of cross-party committees in all four UK Parliaments this week wrote to the Chancellor and Work and Pensions Secretary urging them to make the uplift permanent (and to extend it to legacy benefits), the Mirror reports today that -
'People claiming Universal Credit will receive warning notifications today confirming the £20-a-week cut in 10 weeks time.
Benefit chiefs have said claimants will see their online journals updated, which will explain how much of their income had [been] given in response to the coronavirus pandemic. And as a result, how much they will be left with each week from October.'
The notifications are being issued as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) warns today that the removal of the uplift represents -
'... the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since World War II and the foundation of the modern welfare state.'
Katie Schmuecker, JRF's Deputy Director of Policy said -
'We all accept governing is about priorities but cutting the incomes of millions of the poorest families and sucking money out of the places in which they live, flies in the face of the government’s mission to level up our country. This is not about generosity, it’s a matter of investing in families so they have the dignity of being able to meet their needs and supporting everyone in and out of work to escape poverty.
The public deserve to know what the government expects the impact of this cut to be. Ministers cannot hide the fact that they are ploughing ahead with a cut despite knowing it will be devastating for millions of families.'
For more information, see UK heading for the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since World War II.
Stop press (3 August 2021): Work and Pensions Minister Will Quince has outlined that the 23 July 2021 communication was to notify claimants of how much of their standard allowance is a result of the temporary uplift that has been provided in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and that further communications with claimants making it clear that it will no longer be included in their standard allowance will be carried out 'over the Summer'.
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