The importance of the £20 a week Universal Credit increase
Latest research from Action for Children and Child Poverty Action Group reveals the importance of the £20 uplift to Universal Credit for families after years of social security cuts
The past decade has seen large cuts to social security. In March 2020, in the wake of the pandemic, the Government introduced a key policy to raise the Universal Credit standard allowance and Working Tax Credit maximum amount by £20 per week.
Working with Child Poverty Action Group, we carried out research to assess the importance of this £20 increase. We particularly wanted to know to what extent the measure mitigates the damage caused by social security losses over the past decade for a typical working family.
Without the £20 increase, our findings show hairdressers will be the worst affected, losing an average of £1,982 a year after the cut, followed by pharmacy assistants (£1,946 average annual loss) and shelf fillers (£1,843).
