The decision to cut Universal Credit by £20 a week from next month has been described as a “disaster” by one Stirling councillor, who says it will hit those in the local community hard.
Millions of people across the UK will be contacted soon confirming their Universal Credit is being cut by £20-a-week.
It was revealed last month that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were to write to around six million claimants across the country ahead of the uplift being removed at the end of September.
Last week, it was reported that millions of Universal Credit claimants had been told via text message that their benefits are to be cut.
The UK Government has ignored calls from charities, opposition parties and even its own MPs not to remove the modest increase which was introduced in April 2020 to help people through the coronavirus pandemic. Experts have warned that ending the £20 a week uplift could plunge thousands of people into poverty.
Bannockburn ward SNP councillor, Alasdair MacPherson, has hit out at the move, saying: “The decision to remove the £20 uplift Universal Credit will be a disaster as it will impact hundreds of my constituents. Recent research by the Trade Union Congress found that 176,000 people in Scotland who are claiming Universal Credit also have a job but do not bring home enough money to stay afloat.
“The Joseph Rowntree Foundation have also stated that this will be the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since the Second World War.
“This decision highlights once again the nasty side of the Tories – dodgy contracts and tax cuts for the rich and benefits cuts to the poor.”
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Responding to the councillor’s comments, Mid Scotland and Fife Tory MSP, Dean Lockhart, says that the SNP government possesses the power to introduce its own £20 uplift. Mr Lockhart said: “The Scottish Government have the power to keep the £20 uplift if they wanted to but they won’t use it. This is nothing more than another cynical move by an SNP obsessed with creating friction to try and further independence.
“Councillor MacPherson likes to pontificate on these matters, but as usual won’t dare ask his own party to take responsibility. After 13 years of SNP government, people see through this well-worn ploy of blaming other people for his party’s lamentable track record.”
It comes as a poll published yesterday found nearly two-thirds of Scots support extending the £20-a-week increase to Universal Credit
The £20 boost was a key part of the Tory Government’s emergency package of pandemic support measures.
However, Boris Johnson is refusing to make the rise permanent and campaigners fear a reversal will plunge tens of thousands into poverty.
A YouGov poll for Citizens Advice Scotland found 35 per cent of people supported keeping the cash in place until the financial situation created by the pandemic “is more stable”.
Over a quarter of those surveyed, 28 per cent, said the cash rise should be made permanent.
Around 11 per cent said the top-up should end in September, with another 10 per cent saying the cut should be implemented sooner.
