THE SNP has launched a campaign urging the UK Government to keep a “lifeline” uplift in Universal Credit.
Campaigners have warned plans by the Tories to end the extra support in October risks plunging thousands more people into poverty.
The SNP’s Work and Pensions spokesperson and Glasgow MP, David Linden, is leading the party’s campaign to urge the UK Government to make the uplift permanent and extend it to those on legacy benefits.
He said: “The £20 uplift has been a lifeline for millions – and is currently preventing half a million families from falling over the edge into poverty.
“It would be truly devastating for our society if the Tory government ploughed ahead with plans it knows will push hundreds of thousands of households – including 200,000 children – over the brink at a time they need support most.
“The pandemic is not over, and the economic impact of it will be felt for years to come if the Tories at Westminster do not take the necessary steps to rebuild the social security system they’ve spent the last decade dismantling.
“It is now vital they make the Universal Credit uplift a permanent fixture and extend it to legacy benefits.”
UK Work and Pensions Minister Therese Coffey last month confirmed that the uplift introduced during the pandemic will be withdrawn at the end of September.
She told MPs that now the economy was opening up, the focus should be “strongly on getting people into work and jobs”.
But Scotland’s social security minister Ben Macpherson called the decision “indefensible” and “economically nonsensical”.
The Scottish Government has estimated the cut will push more than 60,000 people in Scotland into poverty, including 20,000 children.
Six former Tory Work and Pensions Secretaries, as well as the Northern Research Group, which is made up of 50 Tory MPs, have also recently echoed calls to keep the uplift.
Linden added: “Tory ministers must listen to the many voices that have warned about the impact the Universal Credit crunch will have – including the fact that the planned cut risks wiping out the positive impact the Scottish Child Payment has on families.
“If they go ahead with these further brutal austerity cuts, it will be another example of the SNP government putting money in people’s pockets just for the Tories to take it away again.”
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