How the Universal Credit Cut will impact care leavers

The teams looking after care-experienced young people, the change in policy is of huge concern.

The Voice of Young People

80 per cent of Local Authority Leaving Care teams in England – that is those who support young people aged 18 to 25 who are in the process of leaving the social care system - are members of NLCBF. As a forum, we exist to improve outcomes for care leavers through sharing good practice, campaigning on national issues and raising the voice of care experienced young people. Right now, we are working to ensure that care experienced young people are not further disadvantaged in the aftermath of Covid.

When we have asked professionals and young people what their concerns are coming out of Covid, the reduction of Universal Credit back to £59.38 per week for under 25-year-olds is repeatedly raised. As one young care experienced person said:

“My mental health will rapidly decline as I’ll worry how I can afford to live. I worry I can’t continue to pay my heating bill I’m in debt with, I worry I won’t be able to eat properly again,” said one care experienced young person

Yes, one might be able to just about survive off this amount of money but at what cost to an individual’s dignity and wellbeing? And how much of our work around promoting wellbeing and positive self-esteem of children growing up in care is undone the moment they must start living off such a difficult amount? What impact does living on a financial knife edge have on your capacity to think about future aspirations?

The Real Impact of £20 Change

The Universal Credit uplift was introduced as a temporary measure at the beginning of the pandemic. Earlier this year we spoke to over 100 care experienced young people about the impact of an additional £20/week – and we have released a report of the findings. Young people told us it had enabled them to pay for food, heat their homes, stay connected with other people and deal with emergencies. Overwhelmingly, they identified improvements to their mental health.

“The extra £20 has seriously impacted me in alleviating the burden of scrambling to make ends meet or shivering during cold winters so I can cut corners on gas,” another care experienced young person said.

“My money was never lasting the entire time between payments. £20 weekly really is a massive amount for them to add on as it was only £60 to begin with. I can now get food, phone credit or electric without going in to my emergency.”

Care experienced young person

We speak to leaving care professionals daily. Many of them topped up Universal Credit allowances using food parcels and vouchers throughout the lockdowns, but there were fewer young people facing financial crises while they were getting the additional £20.

Is Universal Credit enough for anyone?

The original Universal Credit rate of £59.38 for under 25s is insufficient for anyone who is living independently – it is insufficient for anyone paying their own household bills. While this does affect a wider group of vulnerable young people, beyond care leavers, we are highlighting it because the impact of this change is felt by such a large proportion of the 10,000 young people who leave care each year.

Last year, Sheffield Care Leaver’s Union ran an initiative called the ‘Reality Cheque’ where they invited people to live on £24 for 5 days – this was worked out based on Universal Credit, after money for bills was taken out. 90 people including senior members of Sheffield Council took part and used this money to pay for their food, drinks, toiletries, household items, all activities and travel. Feedback from people who took part was that the biggest impact they experienced was on their mental health – they felt down, isolated, and less hopeful– and that was after just five days.

Mental Health

The link between living on such a small income and mental wellbeing is critical - particularly at a time when we are all concerned about young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Children in care are known to have significantly poorer mental health than other disadvantaged children and local authorities tell us that the demand for mental health support has greatly increased over the last few months. Being able to stay connected with friends and family plays an important part in wellbeing and the uplift has enabled young people to connect:

“Each week I have been able to have credit on my phone to speak to friends and family and this has helped my mental health very much, ” a care experienced young person said.

From a financial point of view, removing £20 is a huge step backwards, when you consider the future societal costs and the impact this will have on mental health services.

Even if we only look at the immediate future, we have one question to ask ourselves – would this be good enough for my child?

What Can You Do?

I want to thank the young people who shared their views and experiences with us for the research – but it is on all of us to make sure their voices are heard. While many of the challenges care-experienced young people are facing this year may be out of our control, this is not one of them. We can make sure that the £20 uplift is made permanent, protecting the mental health and wellbeing of care experienced young people and ensuring they get the best possible start to their adult lives.

The Universal Credit Uplift is due to end at the end of September – Please show your support for your local young people in care, and share this piece, the report or any one of these quotes with your MP.

Hannah McCowen, manager of the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum (NLCBF) at Catch 22.