Tory MPs call for Universal Credit funding boost ahead of Budget
3 min read
Dozens of Tory MPs have urged Philip Hammond to find extra cash in the Budget to help prop up the Universal Credit welfare scheme.
The 27-strong group of MPs said that the Government’s flagship welfare scheme would need an extra £2-3bn in extra funding to ensure that some groups were not left “significantly out of pocket”.
Tory MP Heidi Allen, who sits on the Commons work and pensions committee urged the Chancellor to find the cash ahead of this month's Budget statement.
She told the BBC: “Significant numbers of colleagues on my side of the House are saying this isn’t right and are coming together to say the Chancellor needs to look at this again”.
Pressure to change course on Universal Credit has been growing, with former Prime Ministers John Major and Gordon Brown warning it could become another “poll tax” for the Tories.
And in a letter to the Treasury seen by the Sunday Telegraph, Conservative MPs urged Mr Hammond to roll-back cuts made to the scheme by then-Chancellor George Osborne, saying the changes could “transform lives.”
"We know, contrary to some media reports, many claimants will be better off under Universal Credit,” they wrote.
"However there are two groups who will be significantly out of pocket.
"Restoring the work allowances for single parent families and second earners in families with children to their pre 2015 intended levels, would significantly transform their lives.
"As it stands 3.2 million working families are expected to be worse off, with an average loss of £48 a week."
They added: "Enabling hard working parents to keep more of what they earn and thus encouraging them to take up more work is at the heart of Conservative policy. This measure would boost the incomes of 9.6 million low income parents and children."
The intervention follows an admission from Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey that the scheme would leave some people “worse off”.
But a government spokesperson defended the flagship system, saying it was “based on the sound principles that work should always pay and those who need support receive it.
They added: “We are listening to concerns about achieving these principles, improving the benefit, and targeting support to the most vulnerable, including for around one million disabled people who will receive a higher award under universal credit.
GAMBLING CRACKDOWN
Meanwhile, former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith has vowed to lead an all-party revolt against the goverrnment unless it takes a tougher stance against Fixed Odds Betting Terminals.
Mr Duncan Smith has warned Mr Hammond that he will be forced to amend the budget finance bill if the Treasury refuses to include the government’s promised cut in the maximum bet from £100 to £2 per spin, a move that Mr Hammond had delayed until 2020.
The former Tory leader said: “An estimated two people commit suicide in connection with gambling every working day. Therefore, for financial and moral reasons we must implement the FOBT reduction as soon as possible.
“The pressure on MPs from the families of those who died and whose lives have been blighted by these machines grows greater by the day…we feel it vital we respond."
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
