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Footballer and food poverty activist Marcus Rashford will turn his attention to the social safety net and hold talks with the welfare secretary to discuss a £ 6bn a year boost for universal credit payments, The Guardian.
The meeting with Thérèse Coffey, the secretary for work and pensions, which will take place in a formal phone call in the next fortnight, is to discuss the possibility of making permanent the increase of 20 pounds a week in universal credit from April .
It reflects Rashford’s growing interest in the underlying factors of food poverty and his appreciation of the role of adequate welfare benefits in protecting and feeding families in long-term distress.
The government introduced a £ 20 surcharge on universal credit and tax credits as a 12-month temporary Covid measure last April. However, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has repeatedly refused to confirm whether the £ 6bn-a-year measure will be maintained, despite support from all parties.
Activists have estimated that up to 700,000 people, including 300,000 children, will be pushed into poverty if the universal credit recharge is abandoned. This would mean a drop of £ 1,050 a year in applicants’ earnings at a time of rising unemployment, falling living standards and growing destitution.
“That [the £20-a-week top-up] It is certainly something he has shown great interest in as he has spent time with families who have benefited from the improvement, “said a source close to the Manchester United forward. “Thérèse has stated that the upgrade will be reviewed. Marcus is willing to discuss this on your call. “
His interest in universal credit will increase pressure on the government to make permanent the increase of 20 pounds a week. Already this year, it forced the government to make two major U-turns due to food support during school holidays for low-income families.
Rashford has not commented publicly on the universal credit issue, other than asking Sunak in a cheep at the time of the spending review last month, if it was going to be “removed.” But it is understood that you are interested in gaining a greater understanding of the government’s long-term intentions in this area.
Although it will potentially open Rashford to criticism from some quarters that he is moving into more overtly political territory, there is strong public and cross-party support for retaining the elevation, as well as explicit endorsement from many of the charities involved in his. End Child. Alliance against food poverty.
A prominent charity activist told The Guardian: “We welcome Marcus to put his weight in the campaign for universal credit. We have seen a flood of compassion and calls for justice in response to the light that Marcus has shed on hunger. Throughout the year he has spoken of the need for long-term solutions and we could not agree more ”.
The 23-year-old’s own experience of poverty as a child growing up in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, has underpinned his campaign, which has won widespread admiration for its authenticity and raised huge sums for food aid charities. Rashford also wants the free school meal system to be expanded to allow 1.5 million more children from low-income families to access it.
The majority of the public supports a permanent increase in universal credit, according to a Health Foundation survey of 2,000 people conducted by Ipsos Mori in November. It found that 59% supported the increase being permanent beyond April 2021. Among conservative voters, 46% were in favor and 36% against.
Several Conservative MPs and colleagues have joined the Labor Party in publicly calling for the £ 20 surcharge to be withheld, including former welfare secretaries Stephen Crabb and Sir Iain Duncan Smith. The chairman of the Lords’ economic committee, former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Forsyth and leading conservative anti-poverty activist Baroness Stroud have also called for it to be made permanent.
The all-party parliamentary group on poverty, co-chaired by Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake and Neil Gray of the SNP, will conduct a brief investigation in January on the possible effects of the abolition of the universal credit increase and the impact on approximately 2 million claimants – many of them disabled, who did not receive a Covid recharge because they had inherited benefits.
The Department of Work and Pensions will review the improvement internally in the new year as part of a routine review of the broader “economic and health conditions” facing low-income families. Coffey is understood to be sympathetic to retaining him, although the Treasury is reportedly far from enthusiastic.
The secretary for labor and pensions recently held a series of interdepartmental meetings in Whitehall to discuss the impact of the pandemic on issues such as food and fuel poverty. She is said to be unhappy that so many claimants have lost the benefit of the £ 20 increase because they face monthly universal credit deductions for overpayment of historical tax credits.
Lords’ economic affairs committee has called for the cancellation of £ 6 billion of tax credit debts for people who switched to universal credit, arguing that by seeking these deductions the government was putting the financial security of claimants at risk.
A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting the lowest paid families during the pandemic and beyond. That’s why we raised the living wage, increased social support by billions of pounds, and introduced a £ 170 million Covid winter grant program to help children and families stay warm and well fed during the colder months. “
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