Citizens Advice Speaks out on Cut to Universal Credit.

Dame Clare Moriarty chief executive of Citizens Advice.

Cutting Universal Credit will undermine the government’s levelling up agenda.

We can’t level up and cut Universal Credit.

Our @ClareMoriarty sets out why the government must #KeepTheLifeline — or risk undermining the ‘levelling up’ agenda ⤵️ https://t.co/iyBeJVKRCj

— CitizensAdvice (@CitizensAdvice) July 30, 2021

Pushing benefit levels lower will hurt working families and take money out of local economies, not accelerate our recovery.

As MPs return to their constituencies for the summer, millions of families are set to hear that their Universal Credit will drop by over £1,000 a year from October. Families disproportionately located in areas the government has said it wants to “level up”.

An extra £20 a week doesn’t just stop people having to choose between putting food on the table or keeping the lights on. It gives a critical cash boost to the very regions identified as most at risk of being ‘left behind’. For this reason, a cut to Universal Credit is at odds with the government’s own agenda of narrowing the inequality gap.

Levelling up is a slippery term. It can cover any number of things – regenerating town centres, faster broadband, better jobs and tackling the skills deficit. But these sit under one umbrella: improving living standards for the people and places most in need.

Comment: who on earth takes ‘levelling up’ seriously?

A group of Conservative MPs has formed a levelling-up taskforce, and is calling for the government to set out geographical analysis of how tax and spending changes affect different areas. Boris Johnson has also appointed Neil O’Brien, MP for Harborough in Leicestershire, as his levelling-up adviser.

The government says it will set out its plans later this year.

Clearly it has been busy with the pandemic (which has itself highlighted problems of inequality in the UK) since the election.

Boris Johnson has “failed” the “first big test” of his levelling up agenda, Tory peer Lord Shinkwin tells @krishgm after the publication of the government’s national disability strategy. https://t.co/KX7iG515uf

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) July 28, 2021

The report continues.

Of course, levelling up is about more than just geography. It’s about tackling inequalities. More than a third of people who’ll be hit by the cut are already in jobs but still rely on Universal Credit to make ends meet. Some can’t work because of a disability or caring responsibility. Others have weathered furlough or shielding and are picking up the pieces from this crisis.

The Chancellor’s counter-argument to keeping the £20 increase is that the focus must be jobs. Supporting people into the labour market is vital and job creation schemes are welcome. But frontline staff at Citizens Advice know a job doesn’t mean income security, particularly when it’s low paid or zero hours. Pushing benefit levels lower will hurt working families and take money out of local economies, not accelerate our recovery.