We welcome the increase in the ‘National Living Wage’, the guaranteed £250 rise for public sector workers on less than the median wage, the £3bn for DWP to help people back to work and the retention of the LHA uplift, but the #SpendingReview was a missed opportunity... [thread]

The chancellor should have taken the opportunity to make the £20 weekly uplifts in #UniversalCredit and #WorkingTaxCredit permanent and available to ‘legacy benefit’ claimants #SpendingReview2020

Our CEO @alisongcpag said: "The extra £1000/yr has been a lifeline for families who have lost income to Covid-19 and who feel they are one bill away from real hardship. If the future of the uplift remains uncertain – and if it isn’t extended to people on ‘legacy benefits’...

"... millions of parents will carry worry with them to Christmas and into the new year. We are urging Ministers to heed cross-party calls for the uplift to be retained so that households who are really struggling have a life raft to cling to in the choppy waters of the recession.

"In kicking the can down the road this has been a missed opportunity for Govt to give some certainty & security of income to struggling families. Many will now go into Christmas not knowing if they can afford to spend what little they may have been able to put aside on their kids

"And there will be extra pressure soon when the benefit cap bites more people when the grace period expires for many just before Christmas, together with deductions to benefits as a result of having to take UC advances, family incomes will be very stretched.

"The Chancellor had an opportunity to take some of the worry away but chose not to – struggling families will not forgive the Government if they continue with their callous plan to reduce levels of UC and WTC in the spring.

"The Government acted quickly to reinforce the UK’s safety net when the coronavirus struck. It should cement that achievement by retaining the uplift and extending it to people who are having to rely on legacy benefits, including people who are sick or disabled.

"The Government needs to address the growing child poverty crisis, made worse by Covid-19, with the same urgency it is investing in finding a vaccine." #SpendingReview2020 [ends]