Therese Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, has been accused of lying or incompetency after she suggested people set to lose £20 a week from their Universal Credit (UC) payments could work extra hours to make up for the cut.
The Cabinet minister defended the government’s plan to end the increase introduced during the pandemic by saying it had always been “temporary”.
“I’m conscious that £20 a week is about two hours’ extra work every week - we will be seeing what we can do to help people perhaps secure those extra hours, but ideally also to make sure they’re also in a place to get better paid jobs as well,” she told BBC Breakfast.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner later tweeted that this was “a lie” and said Ms Coffey “either knows she’s lying or shouldn’t be in the job”.
It comes as the Labour Party warned Boris Johnson that his plans to increase National Insurance (NI) payments by 1.25 per cent will disproportionately effect hospitality and retail workers – leaving them as much as £1,000 worse off a year.
Meanwhile, the operators of major ports have told The Independent they are highly likely to miss key Brexit deadlines to build new border checks infrastructure, amid a global supply chain crunch and following confusing guidance from the government.
