Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about Universal Credit (UC).

As I am sure you will know, in the Government’s 2021 Budget, delivered on 3 March, the Chancellor announced that UC will be reduced by £20 a week from the end of September. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions recently confirmed that this remains the Government’s intention.

I agree with you that UC should not be reduced at this time. If the reduction does go ahead, as the Government plans, it will cost six million families an estimated £1,000 a year and support for those out of work will be left at its lowest level in decades. For these reasons, I support maintaining UC at its current levels until it can be replaced with a new social security system which provides a proper social security safety net and has dignity and respect at its heart.

In the meantime, I want to see urgent reforms to UC and the current social security system. These include an end to the five-week wait for a first UC payment and for UC advances to be converted into grants instead of loans. In addition, I believe the UC savings limit, the benefit cap and the two-child limit for UC and Tax Credits should be abolished.

More widely, I support uprating all six legacy benefits by £20 a week in line with UC. Taking all of these steps would provide immediate support those affected by coronavirus including many people who, as you say, have kept our country running during the pandemic.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this very important issue.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP