Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit

Ruth Edwards Excerpts

Monday 18th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Ruth Edwards (Rushcliffe) (Con) [V]]

Ten months ago, the shutters came down on businesses across our economy. People’s whole way of life changed overnight. The impact was unprecedented.

In answer, we needed an unprecedented response, and the Government delivered, as my hon. Friends have said, through a £280 billion support package. That support helped businesses across the country survive and save jobs through grants, the furlough scheme, the self-employed income support scheme and Government-backed business loans. That support helped families pay their bills and put food on the table through the council tax hardship fund, the covid winter grant scheme, increasing Healthy Start payments and establishing a £220 million holiday activities and food programme. That support gave people security over the future of their home through a six-month mortgage holiday and a temporary ban on eviction for renters.

The Government’s response has been praised by international bodies such as the IMF as one of the best support packages in the world, but even that was not able to save every job, so we invested billions to help people get back into work through apprenticeships, the kickstart scheme and one-to-one coaching. We have doubled the number of work coaches and injected billions of pounds into the welfare system, boosting universal credit and working tax credit by £1,000 a year for 12 months.

The Leader of the Opposition says he wants to scrap universal credit, yet today his party is arguing to keep this temporary increase. Surely it cannot have both. Labour’s proposal today would cost £6 billion per year. How would they pay for it? Would they increase income tax by 1% for 30 million taxpayers and put 5p on fuel duty? Would they increase VAT to at least 21%? Or would they raid one of our job creation schemes or existing support packages, or one of the new commitments we have already made—the commitment to increase the national living wage, worth £345 a year to someone working full time, or those to help 3.5 million families pay their council tax and to maintain the increase in the local housing allowance?

Those are big commitments, which are important to families up and down the country, including those who receive universal credit and working tax credits. It is right that we have made them and that we support people further, but how we do that should be properly considered and costed in the Budget.