Emergency plans are underway to help 17,000 Bristol families who will be hit by the £20 cut to universal credit, Marvin Rees has revealed.
The £20-a-week uplift of Universal Credit - which was added to the payments at the start of the pandemic - is being withdrawn from today (October 6) despite howls of protest.
The city’s mayor has said the council and its One City partners, who include the NHS, trade unions and the voluntary sector, are bracing themselves for an increase in households in poverty.
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Mr Rees told a press briefing today (October 6) the benefits cut would leave people having to choose between eating and heating their homes.
He said: "This is not in line with the commitment to build back better.
"There is no better in a future in which people are being tipped over the edge into poverty at a very challenging economic time.
"This is the wrong move at the wrong time."
The city's mayor told the briefing the benefits cut "is going to hurt" and said they estimate the change has made Bristol families £41m poorer overnight, adding the benefits cut will turn up as a cost for the education system and health services, for example.
Mr Rees told a Bristol City Council cabinet meeting yesterday (October 5) that the council has been doing some work looking at the potential implications of the universal credit cut, the shortage in adult care workers and the shortage of haulage drivers on the city.
He added: “In a snapshot, we estimate that about 17,000 working families will be hit by the cut to universal credit.
“We are working to be ready for that as a city. We are looking at our emergency plans and looking at all those areas we have in the past, such as tackling hunger, when we got ready for covid ahead of the game, and we’re doing the same now.
“So working with city partners, this is something we will be getting on the front foot for, particularly working through the city office and the One City approach.”
The £20-a-week uplift was extended by six months from March this year after the Government bowed to pressure, with some research finding that half of people claiming the benefit were living in food insecurity even before being hit by the benefits cut.
The official date for it to end is today (October 6) but the cut, amounting to £1,040 a year, will actually kick in between October 13 and November 12 depending on the day claimants are usually paid.
Around one in eight working-age people across Bristol will be hit by the £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit.
Across the city, 41,751 people were claiming Universal Credit (UC) on August 12 - the latest Department for Work and Pensions figures show.
That’s 13 per cent of the people aged between 16 and 64 in the area, according to the latest Office for National Statistics population estimates - around one in eight people in the age group. That was roughly the same as the average of 14 per cent across Britain as a whole.
The number of claimants in Bristol in August was well over double the 18,453 people on the benefit in February 2020 - the last full month before the Covid-19 pandemic sent demand for help soaring.
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The city's mayor said it would also be a tough winter in Bristol’s health and care sector and encouraged anyone considering a career as an adult social carer to look at the advice and opportunities on this website.
Mr Rees said the council guaranteed a living wage to all care workers it employed or commissioned.
A Government spokesperson said: “We’ve always been clear that the uplift to Universal Credit was temporary.
“It was designed to help claimants through the economic shock and financial disruption of the toughest stages of the pandemic, and it has done so.
“Universal Credit will continue to provide vital support for those both in and out of work and it’s right that the Government should focus on our Plan for Jobs, supporting people back into work and supporting those already employed to progress and earn more.”
Additional reporting by Tommy Lumby
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