Boris Johnson has confirmed the government will press ahead with plans to cut Universal Credit, which could place many people in a precarious position.
Speaking to broadcasters, the prime minister said: “My strong preference is for people to see their wages rise through their efforts rather than through taxation of other people put into their pay packets.”
His comments followed a letter from two Conservative MPs urging him to make permanent the £20-a-week increase to Universal Credit introduced at the start of the pandemic.
Today I have written to the PM with @PeterAldous urging him not to go ahead with plans to cut Universal Credit payments from October.
— John Stevenson MP (@John4Carlisle) August 26, 2021
The people in Carlisle, who will be directly impacted by the cut are mostly already in work and are low paid, hard working families. pic.twitter.com/ezfB7qhmIv
The move to slash payments to the poorest people in the UK has provoked outrage on social media.
David Schneider pointed out that food bank use has risen dramatically recently, with the Trussell Trust distributing parcels at a rate of two per minute.
The charity handed out 2,537,198 emergency food parcels between April 2020 and March 2021.
Almost one million (980,082) of these parcels went to children – more than one parcel every minute on average, the charity said.
It is the first time the total number of parcels has topped two million and is a rise of 33 per cent compared to 2019-20 – itself a record year.
The Trussell Trust said need is driven by people not having enough money for the basics, and more people than ever need the social security system to provide a “strong enough lifeline” for them to keep afloat.
In Schneider’s words, ‘welcome to the UK’.
Welcome to the UK where the Trussell Trust gave out 2.5 million food parcels between April 2020-March 2021, an average of 2 per minute. Over 980k were for kids.
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) August 31, 2021
GOVERNMENT CONCLUSION:
Time to remove £20 a week Universal Credit uplift from poorest and most vulnerable.
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