Tens of thousands of low-paid working families can expect to
lose up to £200 a month as a result of changes to universal credit introduced
on Monday – the first wave of £3bn in welfare cuts that will affect 1m
households by 2020.
Ministers have said households affected by the changes could
work extra hours to make up the difference, but charities have said that will
be impossible in many cases, and that the cuts will push more families into
poverty. Analysis by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) estimates that
families with a sole earner working full-time on the “national living wage” of
£7.20 an hour would have to work a 13-month year to compensate for the cuts,
and a full-time single parent would have to work a 14-month year.
Working households claiming universal credit currently have
a work allowance of £222 per month for a couple with children and £263 for a
single parent. The allowances fall to £192 from Monday, lowering the threshold
at which the benefit is withdrawn. CPAG estimates that after income tax and
national insurance is deducted, and taking universal credit deductions of 65p
in the pound into account, a full-time sole earner couple would have to work 19
extra days a year to make up the shortfall, and single parents would have to
work 46.
The charity’s policy director, Imran Hussain, said: “Asking
parents already working full-time to magic up more days in the year to recoup
the cut just isn’t an option.”
The work allowances cut will hit the majority of 80,000 UK
households currently in work and on universal credit. This will increase to
about 1m households it rolls out over the next few years, saving the Treasury a
projected £3bn a year by 2020. Individual losses will vary according to the
particular circumstances of each household. The biggest concentration of
households affected is in the north-west of England, where the rollout of
universal credit has been most extensive. Liverpool city council estimates that
2,800 low-paid working families will lose out by between £60 and £200 a month.
No comments:
Post a Comment