A charity has warned the £1,040 a year benefit cut, which comes amid warnings inflation could top 4%, will push half a million people into poverty, including 200,000 children
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More than 5.5million families have already had their Universal Credit uplift revoked – amounting to £1,000 a year.
The top-up, introduced at the height of the pandemic, was withdrawn on October 6, however the phase out will be gradual because the benefit is paid monthly.
Research by the Joseph Rowntree Society said a collective £440million will be wiped from incomes each month going forward.
Families will lose out on £80 a month – or £1,040 a year.
The society warned it will also push half a million people into poverty, including 200,000 children.
Those in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North East, North West and West Midlands will be the worst affected, however incomes will fall nationwide.
Katie Schmuecker, deputy director of policy & partnerships at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said it was “the biggest ever overnight cut to social security”.
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Families have already told how the payment reduction, coupled with the rising cost of living, will force them to choose between “heating or eating”.
Universal Credit claimant Paul Phillips, 65, has spinal problems and needs a new knee as he struggles to walk.
He told The Mirror : “I’m sure the ministers could not live on Universal Credit. Try taking money out of their pockets, they would soon complain and fight for what was right for them.
“I really don’t know what I’m going to do, gas prices are going up so it looks like a winter of eating or heating. There won’t be enough for both. The extra £80 a month would pay for all my food.
“I just think it’s disgusting. Even if I could work I would have to work an extra nine hours a week just to get the £20 a week I need.
“I think there will be a lot of poverty over the winter, and people like myself with mental issues are going to end up taking their own lives as they won’t be able to cope.”
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Phillips, who lives in Essex, is claiming Universal Credit after a 50-year career in hospitality that once saw him in charge of serving food on board the royal yacht.
“I have worked since I was 15, training as a chef in Torquay,” he said. “I went on in different areas of the country, learning hotel management.
“I worked on cruise ships for 10 years, finally ending up as restaurant manager on board the QE2, before coming back shore-side to carry on my career at being a chef and manager at different locations around the country.”
Some five million households are on Universal Credit.
Under the terms of the cut, the average adult on the standard allowance will see their payments drop from £411.51 to £324.84.
This would boost the government’s coffers by around £6billion a year.
From the beginning of August, Universal Credit claimants started to get notifications that their payments will fall from October 1. If yours hasn’t dropped yet, you can check your online portal or speak to your work coach to find out if and how you will be affected.
Mathew McGauley told us he has voted Conservative in the last four general elections but that the scrapping of the weekly £20 uplift is the last straw.
Earlier this month, he wrote to his local Sleaford MP, Caroline Johnson, to say: “With the cost of living already going through the roof I find it utterly heartless that the government will leave families like my own choosing between heating our home or eating.
“I appreciate it was only a temporary measure but since then the cost living has skyrocketed and is set to continue rising. It’s nearly winter, and in turn Christmas, how can anyone think this is the right time to take away the uplift?
“Please please don’t leave me politically homeless by allowing this to happen.”
What do you think of the £20 uplift being withdrawn? Let us know in the comments below
McGauley said he would vote for any party, including Labour, if they brought back the uplift.
He added: “Please have the heart to get Boris to grow a heart and keep the uplift. It’s vote winner, and to remove it is utterly scandalous at this moment in time.”
According to official government figures, almost 1.5million renters across England and Wales will be affected y the cut.
According to the 2019/20 English Housing Survey, 14.4% of privately rented households in receipt of benefits were behind on rental payments.
Over the course of the pandemic, the overall proportion of privately renting households in arrears tripled.
Meera Chindooroy, deputy policy director at the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “During the pandemic we have found that many renters have built high levels of arrears, which they will struggle to pay off in future.
“With this in mind, the cut to Universal Credit is a short-sighted move that will only serve to worsen this ongoing rent debt crisis.
“Most landlords have offered flexibility where tenants have faced the financial impact of the pandemic, but they cannot absorb these losses indefinitely.
“Practical steps to address this problem can and should be taken to ensure those tenants in receipt of benefits can cover their rents. It is our view that not only must the Government end the five-week wait for the first payment of Universal Credit, it should also ensure they can choose to have the housing element of their Universal Credit payments sent directly to their landlord.”
Those affected by the cut may be able to claim financial help elsewhere. Check our benefit calculator to see what help you could be entitled to.
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