It’s encouraging that support is growing for a real increase in social security benefit levels based initially on the “essentials guarantee” proposed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Trussell Trust, mentioned in your editorial (The Guardian view on extreme poverty: the law should make essentials affordable, 31 August).
A recent inquiry by the all-party parliamentary group on poverty, which I co-chair, endorsed this proposal, together with that of an independent body to advise government on benefit levels.
It received the unequivocal message from witnesses that current levels are inadequate and also counterproductive to the government’s aim of getting more people into paid work, because the mental toll involved in getting by on such low incomes makes it harder to escape poverty. However, even though the essentials guarantee is well above current benefit levels, the group saw it as a “minimal first step”.
Our longer-term aim should be a level of social security sufficient to allow life in dignity, full participation in society and genuine security.
Ruth Lister
Labour, House of Lords
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