Oral Answers to Questions

Karl Turner Excerpts

Monday 13th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

3. If she will reverse her Department’s planned removal of the £20 uplift to the standard allowance of universal credit. [R]

[Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)]

14. If she will reverse her Department’s planned removal of the £20 uplift to the standard allowance of universal credit.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Dr Thérèse Coffey)]

As was announced by the Chancellor at the March Budget, the £20 temporary uplift will come to an end within the next month.

[Karl Turner]

Time and again, the Government have promised investment into areas such as east Hull, but the Minister knows full well that this savage cut to universal credit will pull £35 million from our local economy and leave families worrying about putting food on the table to feed their kids. Is it not time that the Government matched their rhetoric with actions and cancelled the cut for decent, hard-working people?

[Dr Coffey]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, at the time of the Budget the uplift was always advocated to be temporary, recognising that the pandemic’s lockdown elements were not over. We did extend it for a further six months, as we did other covid-related support for people. I remind him that when we had Labour’s crisis in the late noughties, that Government did not make any changes to benefits. We are proud that we did so in that temporary time.