Yorkshire families on verge of poverty if cuts to Universal Credit press ahead, Government is warned

Almost 200,000 families across the region will be worse off if the Government pushes ahead with plans to cut Universal Credit this autumn, amid warnings that the UK may see the biggest overnight welfare cut since the end of the Second World War.
Analysis from the York- based Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the TUC shows the majority of those who will be affected by the cut in Yorkshire and the Humber are working families.
Picture: YorkAnalysis from the York- based Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the TUC shows the majority of those who will be affected by the cut in Yorkshire and the Humber are working families.
Picture: York
Analysis from the York- based Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the TUC shows the majority of those who will be affected by the cut in Yorkshire and the Humber are working families. Picture: York

A weekly £20 increase to the benefit was introduced at the start of the pandemic to stop more people from plunging into poverty.

But the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) plans to end the uplift in the autumn, it confirmed earlier this month.

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Analysis from the York- based Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the TUC shows the majority of those who will be affected by the cut in Yorkshire and the Humber are working families.

Around two in five (38 per cent) of Universal Credit recipients are workers, but another planned cut to working tax credit means that around 194,000 families will be affected.

Katie Schmuecker, deputy director of policy and partnerships for the JRF, said: “Universal Credit has been a lifeline that has helped keep millions of heads above water, but the new analysis should act as a stark warning of the immense, immediate and avoidable consequences of what amounts to the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since the Second World War.”

The TUC said that even in the wealthier parts of the region many families will be affected by the planned benefit cut.

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Some 47.6 per cent of Universal Credit claimants in Richmond, Rishi Sunak’s North Yorkshire constituency, are in work, with high rates of claimants in work also found in Beverley, Harrogate, and York.

Bradford East has the lowest percentage of claimants in work, with 29.7 per cent of those in receipt of the benefit in work.

The TUC and JRF are calling on the Government to increase minimum wage to £10 an hour to combat a risk of increased poverty.

TUC Regional Secretary Bill Adams said: “Ministers should abandon this cruel cut that will hit low-income working families. We need a social security system that helps people get back on their feet – not one that locks them in poverty.”