Covid-19: People Living in Poverty

Baroness Sherlock Excerpts

Thursday 30th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, that there have been 1.5 million universal credit claims in a month shows a loss of income on a massive scale in our country. Our social security system needs a response on that scale. I will make some suggestions from the beginning.

The Government added £20 a week to universal credit and tax credits. Extend that to legacy benefits. Remove the ceilings threshold in universal credit. Crucially, scrap the five-week wait. If they cannot do that overnight, convert the advance to a grant immediately, not a loan. Abolish the two-child limit, as recommended by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham.

This crisis has revealed how much we need the safety net of our welfare state and how badly it has been eroded in recent years. People who have paid in all their lives are shocked at how little they get. Let us patch up our system now, but then let us rebuild it properly. The future should not look like the past.