Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2021

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Excerpts

Wednesday 10th February 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her explanation of the regulations. I accept that the Government have a statutory duty to review the rates of social security benefits annually. However, given the ongoing consequences of the pandemic, the rise in the levels of people unemployed and the growing number of people accessing food banks, there is a need for a root-and-branch review of social security and welfare policy.

We should be focused on the principles of the needs of the population. During various debates on social security matters in your Lordships’ House, I have raised this viewpoint. There needs to be a review through the lens of whether people have adequate or inadequate levels of income to live on, taking in poverty levels, the growing need for access to food banks and rising levels of fuel poverty. Like the noble Lord, Lord Dodds, I agree that the uplift in universal credit needs to be retained. It should also have been applied to legacy benefits. The very fact that it was introduced by the Government, albeit temporarily basis, surely pinpointed the need to uplift benefits and to have a complete review. I ask the Minister a simple question: when will the Government undertake this root-and-branch policy review of social security and welfare legislation to bring benefit to people, based solely on income and the needs of each individual in the UK?