THE PRIME Minister has insisted that maintaining the £20 uplift to Universal Credit is “no longer appropriate” - despite warnings the move will plunge thousands of Scottish households into poverty.
Boris Johnson will deliver his keynote speech at the Conservative party conference on Wednesday, the same day his government will cut a weekly £20 uplift to Universal Credit.
The Prime Minister has pointed to his party’s strategy to get people into work in an attempt to lift them out of poverty – but that is at odds with research suggesting that as much as 40% of Scots who are on Universal Credit are in employment, but do not earn enough.
Mr Johnson was pressed about the cut to Universal Credit on the Andrew Marr Show.
He said: “What you are seeing in this country at the moment is a country that’s coming out of a pandemic in which the state had to spend £407bn to look after people’s livelihoods.
“There has a whole package of measures from furlough to bounce back loans to the Covid (Universal Credit) uplift that are no longer appropriate.”
Mr Johnson added: “What you are seeing instead is record creation of jobs, you are seeing growth faster than anywhere in the G7, unemployment two million lower and what this government thinks is that is the way forward.”
The Prime Minister claimed that “people on low incomes are being paid more” after seeing a “growth in wages after 10 years of flatlining”.
Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that in real terms, “total and regular pay are now growing at a faster rate than inflation”.
But the study warns that analysis “should be interpreted with caution” given the fluctuations in the jobs market and wider economy during the pandemic.
Mr Johnson said that his government’s £407 billion spent on emergency funding during the pandemic “was most beneficial to the poorest and the neediest in society”.
But the Prime Minister said he opposed “unnecessary” tax rises which would potentially fund more support.
Asked to rule out further tax hikes, Mr Johnson said: “You have no fiercer and more zealous opponent of unnecessary tax rises than me, but we have had to deal with a pandemic on a scale which this country has not seen before in our lifetimes and long before.”
He added: “If I can possibly avoid it, I do not want to raise taxes again, of course not, nor does Rishi Sunak.”
In his speech to the Conservative party conference today, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross will accuse Nicola Sturgeon of having become “detached from working class communities” and being “out of touch”.
Speaking on BBC’s the Sunday Show, Mr Ross was asked to justify the comments, given his party is set to cut Universal Credit.
He said: “It was the Conservatives who introduced that temporary uplift at the height of the pandemic.
“We’re still dealing with Covid but the worst of it is hopefully behind us. It’s right that we reassess and look at the measures in place to protect people and support people going forward.”
Mr Ross pointed to £500 million announced by the UK Government to help those least well off survive the winter months with energy prices also rising. The Scottish Government will receive £41 million of funding.
But a former Conservative leader and the architect of Universal Credit has called on the UK Government to delay the cut until next year.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith told Sky News’s Trevor on Sunday programme: “I think it is the right thing to keep this investment in Universal Credit. It has been a huge success.
“Of all the things that have gone wrong in the pandemic, Universal Credit is the one thing that has quietly got on and helped support people without having to queue up at job centres.”
He added: “Even if the Government is determined to do this I would urge them to think about this over the period of the winter, not do it now, think about it in February, March, as they approach the Budget, when they know what the cost of living is, when they know what inflation is, when they know what the difficulties are in the marketplace.
“Far better to wait and see where we are as know things are moving in the wrong directions in those terms and that is going to hit the poorest in society the most. We need to make sure we keep the support measures in for them.”
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