According to the Financial Times the Government’s own analysis of cutting Universal Credit next month confirms what many of us had been saying, that poverty, foodbank usage and homelessness will rise as a result.
So the Government knows that making the biggest overnight cut to social security would be wrong for families and wrong for our economy. The Government is well aware of how careless this cut would be, it would lead to families struggling to put food on the table, an increase in foodbank usage, poverty levels rising, and a number of people made homeless as a result.
And yet they are determined to press ahead and remove what has become a vital lifeline for many families whilst we’re still dealing with so much economic uncertainty as furlough ends soon too. This just isn’t good enough for the 16,000 families across Chadderton, Oldham and Royton who have come to rely on the uplift.
We know that the £20 uplift is more often than not spent in local shops and on our high-streets, so this cut would mean that over £17m would be taken out of our local economy at a time when it needs every penny to survive.
Labour will continue to stand up for the low-income families who will be devastated as a result of this cut and will do everything we can to try and cancel the cut.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 