ACTION FOR CHILDREN REACTS TO CUT TO £20 UNIVERSAL CREDIT UPLIFT

"It makes no sense to cut this lifeline in six months... Families need help and certainty, not a stay of execution."

• New analysis from Action for Children shows six-month extension will see an estimated 2.5 million families with children currently on Universal Credit or Working Tax Credits miss out on a combined total of £1.3 billion across the 2021-22 financial year - equal to each family losing £520 in a year.

• If six-month extension only applied to existing (pre-April 2021) claimants, over that period an estimated 390,000 new Universal Credit households with children would miss out on a combined total of £202.8 million compared to existing claimants - equal to each family losing £520 over six months.

Action for Children’s director of policy and campaigns, Imran Hussain, said: 

“It makes no sense to cut this lifeline in six months when the furlough scheme will have ended and unemployment is expected to be near its highest - exactly when families will need it most. Families need help and certainty, not a stay of execution. 

“There’s no faster way to push more children into poverty than by snatching £20 a week out of the pockets of our country’s poorest families. Many of them are in work and doing their best to hold their heads above water after a traumatic year that’s seen hours cut and wage packets slashed. 

“We ask the Prime Minister to urgently make the uplift permanent for all Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit claimants - and extend it to legacy benefit claimants - to prevent a generation of vulnerable children from being scarred by poverty and the pandemic."