Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about a plan to help children through this winter.

I completely agree that the Government must reconsider the planned £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit (UC) next April. Further measures also need to be taken immediately – the five-week wait for UC should be ended, the benefit cap suspended, the two-child limit in UC and tax credits abolished, and the savings limit should be removed.

I also believe legacy benefits should be uprated in line with UC. Back in May, the Government said it would not increase legacy benefits because it would take several months to change the system. However, we are now well into the pandemic and beyond the point where that uplift could have come online.

The Government recently announced a winter package, including a £170 million scheme which will allow councils to help those hardest hit, as well as provide food for children who need it over the holidays until the end of March 2021. It also includes the expansion of the Holiday Activities and Food programme, covering Easter, Summer and Christmas in 2021 and an increase in Healthy Start payments from £3.10 to £4.25 a week from April 2021. I welcome any move that will stop children from going hungry over the tough months that lie ahead. I believe that the Government should have acted weeks before, to stop children going hungry over the October half term.

I know that throughout the pandemic, many families have been unable to access the childcare support that they are entitled to, at a time when they need it most. A report by the Children’s Commissioner notes that people on UC have to wait weeks to be repaid for upfront childcare costs. She compared this with the tax-free childcare scheme designed by HMRC for higher-earning families, stating “some of the different parts of the system do seem to operate in unfairly disparate ways”.

The immediate priority is to make sure that people get the support they need now. However, longer term, we need a new social security system which provides a proper safety net with dignity and respect at its heart.

Thank you once again for contacting me.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP