As detailed on our Benefit Rates poster 2021/22, from October 2021 the Government plans to cut the Universal Credit standard allowances for all Universal Credit claimants. Nearly six million claimants are on Universal Credit and will be affected. The uplift originally started in April 2020 as a response to the pandemic.
Those still on either JSA(income based), ESA(income related) or Income Support are remain unaffected as they never received this uplift.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has estimated that removing the uplift would force 500,000 people, including 200,000 children, into poverty. Families on the lowest incomes, those with children and particularly single parents, BAME families, and families where someone is disabled are disproportionately affected.
Even with the uplift in place, the Foundation calculates families unable to find work are getting £1,600 less per year in social security support than they would have done in 2011. Families with children are even worse off, receiving around £2,900 less than ten years ago.
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