Chancellor Rishi Sunak has explained why Universal Credit for millions of people across the UK will be cut by £20 a week from September.
The £20 a week uplift has been in place throughout the pandemic and lockdown, and there were fears it could be removed in April.
But on Wednesday Rishi Sunak announced it would be kept.
However, during his Budget speech in Parliament he said the uplift will end in September.
Asked on Thursday morning about the decision to withdraw the £20-a-week increase in Universal Credit by the end of September, the Chancellor said there are a number of long-term initiatives designed to help those families “create a better life for themselves” and compensate for the money being taken away.
Rishi Sunak, asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme why he is not phasing out support rather than creating a “cliff edge”, said: “Because we are taking a more generous approach and keeping it in full without phasing it out.
“It is in full all the way through to the end of September because I think that is a more generous approach.
“And it is right to also focus on all the other things that we are doing to help families in that situation and those things don’t phase out.
“The national living wage increase is something that will benefit families over the whole year, the local housing allowance uplift of £1 billion – that’s a million-and-a-half families who will get up to £600 help with their rent payments next year, 3.5 million families getting £150 for their council tax bills.
“Our Lifetime Skills Guarantee is here to stay, it is permanent, the Kickstart Scheme is going to help a quarter-of-a-million young people – many of those people will be on Universal Credit and will be able to benefit from all of these initiatives, and helping people into good-quality work is absolutely our focus.
“And, as the economy reopens, it is right that that is our focus because that is the best way to help people over time to create a better life for themselves, and that is why we are throwing absolutely everything we have at protecting, supporting and creating as many jobs as possible.”
