Universal Credit: Charities campaign to maintain £20 uplift

A raft of organisations supporting children and families has launched a social media push to urge ministers to protect the uplift, which was brought in when the Covid-19 pandemic struck last year.

Charities are using the hashtag #KeepTheLifeline and urging people to write to their MP explaining how much families rely on the extra money for food and other essentials.

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Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), Save The Children, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Trussell Trust are among those taking part.

Campaigning includes using the voices of benefit recipients, to highlight why they rely on the uplift each week.

Save the Children is telling the story of a parent, Gemma, who said she relies on the uplift to buy food for her family.

"£20 buys food for the week"

Like thousands of other working parents, Gemma relies on #UniversalCredit for childcare, food and essentials.

£20 a week helps kids like Poppy keep smiling.

If this cut will affect you, ask your MP to #KeepTheLifeline: https://t.co/cfGgnYFlSO pic.twitter.com/5PIpa13RES

— Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) August 17, 2021

Meanwhile, the Trussell Trust is warning that more than a million people could be forced to use foodbanks should the uplift end as planned.

The trust says: “We need to be as vocal as possible if we want the UK government to change direction and it is only with a huge amount of public pressure that we will be successful. We have a small window of opportunity before October to try and protect over a million more people from being swept into poverty.”

If #UniversalCredit is cut in October as planned, over a million more people could be forced to use #foodbanks. But it doesn’t have to be like this. Ask your local MP to #KeepTheLifeline & stop more people being swept into poverty > https://t.co/stTCyS9exm https://t.co/acIrjiRk60

— The Trussell Trust (@TrussellTrust) August 17, 2021

Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is another to use the voices of recipients of Universal Credit in its promotion to back #KeepTheLifeline.

One man, Teddy, says that taking away the uplift for his family “could mean I can’t afford to pay the extra for my rent driving me into rent arrears or I won’t be able to pay for oil to heat our home”.

Another parent to receive Universal Credit quoted by CPAG is parent Lexie. She said: “The removal of the £20 uplift will mean I will have to choose between heating my home and myself and my husband eating.”

The £20-a-week cut to #UniversalCredit this October will be the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since WW2. We and many others are calling on the government to #KeepTheLifeline to protect children and families.

— Child Poverty Action Group (@CPAGUK) August 17, 2021

CPAG warns that the £20 cut in October, “will be the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since WW2”.