Renfrewshire’s most vulnerable people will lose £1,000 in benefits this winter as the UK Government confirms it will not extend the uplift to Universal Credit.
Secretary for Work and Pensions Thérèse Coffey and Prime Minister Boris Johnson both this week said that the £20 weekly uplift would be scrapped as planned - despite a warning that the move would be “devastating” for low income families.
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Ms Coffey said the uplift - implemented in April 2020 to help those who have lost income due to the pandemic - would begin to be phased out from late September.
It means almost 16,000 people in Renfrewshire will be plunged even further into poverty as winter hits.
Collectively, hard-up households in Renfrewshire will lose out on £16 million this year.
Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) had, with dozens of anti-poverty campaigners and politicians, demanded the lifeline uplift become permanent.
Gavin Lovesey, service development manager at the Renfrewshire office said he fears for the future of local families.
He told the Express: “Given the high level of support for making the £20 uplift permanent and the relatively clear understanding of its impact, it is deeply disappointing to learn that it is to be discontinued.
“As a result of the benefits freeze between 2016 and 2019, UC has fallen in value over a tenth behind inflation.
“It wasn’t enough to live on before the pandemic, and with the uplift ending, it will be worth less in real terms than it was when it was first introduced in 2013.”
He added: “Scrapping the uplift is going to have a devastating impact on individuals and families across Renfrewshire, hitting hardest those who have least, and those who have debts.”
A probe last year showed that almost 2,000 households in the region would likely experience fuel poverty if the uplift was removed, meaning they wouldn’t have enough cash to pay their bills.
And a report published in May also showed that 7,000 children in Renfrewshire were living in poverty even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck and its subsequent economic fallout.
Natalie Don, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, has been campaigning to end poverty in Scotland for years.
She said the inhumane decision to remove the uplift could in effect wipe out the additional support the Scottish Government is offering low income families through the Scottish Child Payment.
“Describing the decision as a “knock-out blow” to children in poverty, she said: “It is shameful that the Tories have not listened to Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner, who warned that this cut to UC will knockout the benefits the Scottish Government’s Scottish Child Payment is bringing to families.
“Around 1,200 families in Renfrewshire North and West will benefit from the Scottish Child Payment this year, but I fear this inhumane decision by out-of-touch Westminster politicians cutting across the SNP’s ambitious anti-poverty measures will result in completely avoidable suffering for those that need supported most in our society.”
