Councillors have overwhelmingly approved a motion calling on the UK Government to make the £20 Universal Credit uplift permanent.
A letter will now be sent to Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging them to go further and extend the payment to those on legacy benefits and to scrap the five-week wait and two-child cap.
Deputy leader of the Labour group, Councillor Gerry Convery (East Kilbride Central South) – who proposed the motion – said “this is not a political motion” because “it is immoral in this day and age” that people have to decide between eating and heating their homes.
An SNP amendment, proposed by Hamilton South councillor Josh Wilson, was accepted into the motion which councillors overwhelmingly approved by 50 votes to 13 at a meeting of the full council on Wednesday, March 10.
Only the Conservative group and independent councillor Colin McGavigan (Clydesdale South) – who is currently suspended from the Conservative party – voted against the motion.
In an impassioned debate, councillors clashed over whether the Conservative UK Government would be able to balance the books and afford to make the £20 uplift permanent and whether or not Scotland would be better off as an independent country.
Imploring colleagues to support the motion, Cllr Convery said: “This lockdown has proved quite categorically the need to update Universal Credit money.
“When you look at people queuing up at foodbanks, the amount of people that are involved in giving out food parcels – it is an absolute scandal.
“If the £20 was made permanent, that would be a cash injection to the South Lanarkshire economy of £595,000. That would be a major boost.
“There is no hidden agenda here, it is to give people who are less fortunate than ourselves an uplift which they quite rightly deserve.”
Cllr Wilson “agreed with everything Cllr Convery said” but wanted to see the motion go further and include demands that the UK Government end the five-week wait, scrap the two-child cap, and match the “game-changing” Scottish Child Payment.
He added: “Making the uplift permanent and extending it to legacy benefits is the bare minimum UK ministers should do to make up for their poverty-inducing austerity agenda.
“We should also use the word increase lightly because people out of work today are still £1000 per year worse off compared to 2011. Even before the pandemic, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty said that poverty in the UK was systematic and tragic. Universal Credit is broken and needs an urgent overhaul.”
Deputy leader of the Lib Dem group Mark McGeever (Hamilton West and Earnock) said his party would be supporting the motion.
He added: “I think every councillor over the past year has had an awful lot more contact from residents asking for help because they are genuinely worried about getting by.
“For those on Universal Credit, the £20 increase makes a massive difference and I highly doubt that anyone could be said to be enjoying the money. They are just greatly relieved to have it.”
Conservative group leader Cllr Alex Allison (Clydesdale East) proposed that the council should write to the UK Government and congratulate them for what they have done over the past year.
He said: “When I first saw this motion, a saying came to mind: A day late and a dollar short.
“I don’t think it’s actually that accurate, I would maybe go a week late and £20 short.”
Conservative councillor Graeme Campbell (Avondale and Stonehouse) admitted that the Chancellor “clearly isn’t able to balance the books” and that he didn’t know how the country could afford it. Larkhall councillor Richard Nelson added he was “very glad” Scotland wasn’t independent because “we would be in a worse off position”.
However, Bothwell and Uddingston councillor Jim McGuigan suggested the opposite would be true and added: “As far as I can make out, if we had been an independent Scotland, we would be in a much stronger position financially.”
