Universal Credit cut: Tories don’t care if the poor become poorer

Post-lockdown, he implores a group of people to join him in a real life ­exercise session – only to be rejected with a cry of “sorry the pubs are back open”.

Bouncing in to the scene comes ­footballer Marcus Rashford, whose campaign for free school meals won huge praise last year, and on asking for volunteers for a community kitchen encounters a similar response.

“But what about how we were saying we would look out for our neighbours and make the world a better place?” he says ­forlornly.

How things have changed. Going through the pandemic has undoubtedly had an ­impact on everyone’s lives – from having to work from home to losing jobs and income, from not being able to meet up with friends and family to losing loved ones.

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It led to much chat about how things would never be the same again.

Yet, with the end of lockdown, it seems life for many has got back to normal pretty quickly. While we once sat glued to daily press conferences reeling at the death toll, now the numbers – far lower, but still in their hundreds across the UK every week – roll by with barely any acknowledgement. We’re back to bustling about, sighing at people who get in the way. We’re back to impatiently beeping in our cars, rushing about to get to work and to nights out.

There was a sense, during the height of the Covid crisis, of pulling together to ­protect all of us and the most vulnerable in society. We wore face masks, kept our ­distance from others and accepted normal life shutting down.

Now it’s an altogether different story. And in many ways of course that’s a good thing. It’s great to get a bit of normality back.

But like the pub-goers in the Spitting ­Image sketch, some seem to have ­forgotten all too quickly the notion of trying to ­improve the world we live in and helping the most vulnerable in the community.

Unfortunately that includes the current UK Government.

From the party that brought us the “rape clause” and bedroom tax, another move to punish the “undeserving poor” is looming large.

An extra £20 a week uplift to Universal Credit was announced by Chancellor ­Rishi Sunak in March last year as the ­virus took hold.

He talked of strengthening the safety net and introducing measures to benefit the most vulnerable households.

Although note the extra amount ­being offered each month would not even pay for half of the Chancellor’s favoured ­coffee cup – a £180 “smart mug” he chose to pose with in pre-Budget photocall.

The Tories are once again showing their true nature by declaring the uplift is no longer needed and pressing on with ­cutting the extra cash from the end of this month – despite a huge backlash which includes from across the political divide.

Olivier De Schutter, the United ­Nations’ poverty envoy, last week warned cutting the benefit would be “unconscionable at this point in time”.

He is one of many who have pointed out that amount could be the difference between falling into extreme poverty and remaining just above the poverty line.

What is the Department of Work and Pensions anticipating will be the result of the change, which has been described by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since the Second World War?

It says it doesn’t actually know. An SNP request for details of an impact ­assessment was met with the response that this has not been carried out ­because the extra cash was introduced as a ­temporary measure.

However earlier this month one ­Whitehall official was reported to have said: “The internal modelling of ending the UC uplift is catastrophic. ­Homelessness and poverty are likely to rise, and food banks usage will soar.

“It could be the real disaster of the ­autumn.”

Newly published calculations from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre have concluded nearly 180,000 working people in Scotland will be hit by the cut to Universal Credit.

And more than 100,000 single-parent households and 11,000 families with ­disabled children will also be impacted by the ending of the uplift.

Behind all the statistics are the ­individuals and families who will face an even greater struggle to put food on the ­table or heat their homes amid rising costs for essentials such as food and energy.

People like Amina Nagawa, who told MPs on the Commons Work and ­Pensions Committee how Universal Credit barely covers her bills.

She is left with just £50 a week for food, school uniform and clothes after all her monthly outgoings are covered.

“I am like many thousands of people across the country who can’t live on ­Universal Credit. We live hand to mouth,” she said.

“Our children cannot have what kids have, and we are blamed as if it is our fault. If the Government removes our £20 top-up we will suffer even more. I really have next to nothing to spend on food and other basics.

“I often go without so my son can eat something nutritional.”

Or Anthony Lynam, a father of two and a single parent, who told MPs: “Before the uplift was introduced we were already on a knife edge to do with food versus fuel.

“The uplift sent some relief and for that to be removed is going to leave us with that big question again: do I go hungry, do my kids go hungry or do we keep the house warm?”

What have the Tories to say about it?

Well, according to Work and Pensions Secre­tary Therese Coffey making up the difference in income would only mean “two hours’ extra work every week” for claimants.

The Resolution Foundation has ­disputed the figures pointing out ­claimants who work additional hours see their benefits fall – and so they could face needing to work as much as nine extra hours a week to make up for the removal of the uplift.

Not quite so easy to squeeze in another full day of work, especially if you have are trying to fit in looking after children or have caring responsibilities.

IT’S of no surprise this Tory government is so out of touch. After the reshuffle last week, the new UK Cabinet was hailed by Downing Street as the “most diverse in history”.

Yet only a quarter of roles were given to women. Almost half attended Oxford or Cambridge, while 60% attended a private school.

In the Cabinet, there’s more than a sprinkling of the rich and elite – Prime Minister Boris Johnson who sees fit to decorate with £840 a roll wallpaper, ­Sunak whose wife is richer than the Queen and former financier Jacob ­Rees-Mogg, who is estimated to have a fortune of more than £150million, to name a few.

Not even Michael Gove dancing badly in an Aberdeen nightclub can convince us it’s a government in touch with the ­ordinary world.

Despite all their talk of building back better and levelling up, the stark ­question remains – why would people who have been so handsomely rewarded by a ­system want to change it?

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Meanwhile, as the UK Government is criticised for its actions, the Scottish ­Government is attacked for failing to ­mitigate the impact of those actions.

Some critics say with the powers it has, it should be doing more.

So we’re stuck on never-ending loop.

Here’s an idea – how about if Scotland was independent and in control not only of social security, but all other decisions about its future?

Then it wouldn’t have to act to mitigate actions which it never wanted introduced in the first place.

Scotland could take a different path, one which leads away from austerity, poverty and food banks. It’s often ­human nature to forget and move on. But a global pandemic surely must bring some much needed and meaningful change to the world we currently live in.

A world in which the most vulnerable have a much-needed £20 a week snatched away by the richest who think nothing of drinking their coffee from a £180 cup.