To ask how people will cope with Universal credit cut.

[ponyexpress22]

Surely they aren't going ahead with cutting it by £20 a week? I'm shocked that the government could stoop this low. What the hell are they doing.

Are they?
That's quite a bit for those on a very low income.

The same way they coped before the uplift... debt, foodbanks, poverty, going without.

Families who are already in poverty will be even more so, families who are struggling will be pushed over the line into poverty, and families who are just about managing will be pushed into the struggling range. Couple with the rise in NI, its going to be very shit for a lot of people.

Boris said he wants to concentrate on people who are working, but nearly half of all claimants are working.

I get UC and got a message on my journal today telling me this month is the last month I will get the £20/week uplift payment. So they are very much going ahead with it.

Oh and I work.

We'll definitely struggle. What with the rise in supermarket prices , this extra money was a lifeline.

I'm actually really worried about this cut too.

@MrsRobbieHart yes , we got that message last month. It's happening.

Boris and his cronies couldn't care less about us.

We both work and get some UC help. We are just about getting by, With the uplift going from next month and NI increasing I really don’t know how we’ll get by. Need to somehow magic up an extra £110ish each month

It was always going to be stopped. Nobody else got any extra, yes tax credits for a lump
Of £500 but that’s still less than what UC got and many more on old legacy benefits got nothing at all.

I'm a carer working full time but no-one gave me an extra £20 a week.

Nope for people already living hand to mouth it will leave disastrous consequences.. yet minimum wage is a good enough wage to live on. It’s disgusting. Healthy food also costs a fortune! It’s just digging a deeper into a bottomless pit of poverty and shame for people on the breadline whilst the upper/middle class of society bask in it like nothing has happened..

Boris and his cronies couldn't care less about us.

Why did they give you an extra £20 a week for 18 months then if they didn't care?

I hope it’s stopped, no one has given me £20 a week more.

It was only ever temporary and seeing as workers are now going to be paying 1.25% extra, it seems reasonable that everyone needs to take the hit.

Yup, ditto to being £100+ worse off a month, what with the UC cut and the NI increase.

Some people just wouldn't understand how much that sort of money makes a difference. My council sent out a £50 voucher to anyone whose pre-school aged child received the Free 15hours funding (mine does because my income is under £17K), and it was honestly the best thing. An extra £50 to spend on food over the summer made such a wonderful difference. The kids had ice lollies in the food shop every week, we had lemonade at picnics, we had strawberries and blackberries and watermelon for fruit instead of cheaper apples and bananas. When my kids got worms, I could use the rest of the voucher to buy Ovex and we didn't have to all put up with the worms until I got paid.

Being £100+ worse off means that sort of thing is a distant memory. All my outgoings are as small as it's possible to be, I can't cut much further. My kids (5&6) do swimming lessons, and realistically I'll probably end up cancelling them, because otherwise we'll struggle too much. And then because I have 3 kids under 8, I can't take them swimming on my own because of the pool ratios, so they won't learn. It sucks.

I also got the message to say my uplift was ending. I didn't even see the uplift which I'm almost grateful for because it means my income won't actually change.

Ah, I see the race to the bottom has begun.

Those on legacy benefits were welcome to switch to UC at any point, in fact they’ve been encouraged to do so.

Those earning too much to qualify for benefits, I wish it wasn’t such a bitter feeling. I hate that our circumstances the last year have got so bad that we’ve had to claim. I hope the bitterness doesn’t leave too much of a bad taste.

It's dishonest to call it a cut.

In future I hope the government never introduces temporary help for anything, because dishonest opponents will always call it a cut when it ends.

It's not a race to the fucking bottom. I don't get UC but I don't begrudge those that do and whine about it being unfair. The point of the welfare system should be to give people a hand up not shove them down.

We're talking about people who need the top up from UC in order to make ends meet, many of them work, and many of them are vulnerable families who are going to be made even more so by this cut. Taking it away, especially right now when prices are going up and NI is rising, is nothing short of cruel and punishes poor people for the crime of being poor.

@Iheartbaby

I hope it’s stopped, no one has given me £20 a week more.

I'm on legacy benefits, so didn't get it. I don't begrudge anyone receiving it on UC though, and agree with pp that it shouldn't be stopped.

In other news, there's upcoming court cases against the DWP from people in a similar situation to mine: www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/money/dwp-legal-battle-over-uplift-24750788 - will be interesting to see what happens there.

I'm on a legacy benefit and never got the uplift so claimants on UC have had the positive of that. They're just going back to how they were. They managed before, they can surely find a way to manage again. Personally I skip meals and don't shower every day to cut down on expenditure.

I thought it was always going to be temporary, not a permanent increase? It was to help people out in the midst of the pandemic. Like the furlough scheme. People were expected to plan for it ending not budget as if it would be the same.

Where would the money come from to make it permanent? Tax the squeezed middle even more?

What about the people who didn’t quite qualify for the raise, but still had to make ends meet?