End of Universal Credit uplift to impact more than 10,000 Mansfield residents

The Government raised the benefit by £20 per week to help people cope during the coronavirus pandemic – but the temporary uplift ends today.

The decision to end the uplift has faced strong opposition, with the first ministers of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales among high-profile politicians and campaigners who have urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to scrap the contentious proposals.

In a letter, the leaders said there was no rationale to justify cutting crucial financial support at a point when people across the UK are facing ‘an unprecedented squeeze on their household budgets’.

Ashfield Council has voted to oppose the removal of the uplift, saying it was a ‘purely an ideological attack’ on the poorest residents of Ashfield.

Department for Work and Pensions figures show there were 10,676 people claiming Universal Credit in Mansfield in July, alongside 11,277 people in Ashfield in July and 8,911 in Newark & Sherwood.

They are among more than 5.8 million claimants across the UK who may face a struggle to make ends meet, according to anti-poverty campaigners.

Despite months of campaigning, the uplift was due to end today, October 6.

Poverty

Anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said the end of the uplift represented the ‘biggest ever overnight cut to social security’ and claimed the Government's decision could plunge up to half a million people into poverty.

Katie Schmuecker, from the JRF, said: “The Prime Minister is abandoning millions to hunger and hardship with his eyes wide open.”

She said the decision ‘flies in the face of the Government's mission to unite and level up our country’.

She said: “People’s bills won’t get cheaper from Wednesday and families are already anxious about how they will get through a looming cost of living crisis.

“This decision shows a total disregard for the consequences.”

A Government spokesman said: “We’ve always been clear the uplift and the furlough scheme were temporary.

“They were designed to help claimants through the economic shock and financial disruption of the toughest stages of the pandemic and have done so.”

He said Universal Credit would continue to provide support for people in and out of work.

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