• Amid cost of living crisis MPs push for welfare reforms for the most in need.
• MPs concluded the Wales-focused inquiry by recommending further probes into the issue, including UC uplift and expansion of sick pay cash.
• Cynon Valley MP Beth Winter – UC uplift “needed now more than ever.” MS Heledd Fychan – cut “a political decision.”
The £20 Universal Credit (UC) uplift should be brought back and extended to those on legacy benefits, and benefits should be uprated in line with inflation, according to the cross-party Welsh Affairs Committee of MPs.
This recommendation formed part of a wide-ranging report on the Benefits system in Wales. Other recommendations included increasing the level of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), working with Welsh Government on a Pension Credit take up campaign, and examining the potential merits of devolving more benefits to Wales.
The Welsh Affairs Committee has recommended a board of Ministers from UK and Welsh Governments is set up to focus on the specific needs of the Welsh people.
The report marks the end of an inquiry into the benefits system in Wales, instigated by Cynon Valley Labour MP Beth Winter.
On the basis of expert evidence, the report makes a raft of other recommendations, including increasing and reviewing the eligibility criteria for SSP, reviewing the 5 week wait for Universal Credit, the benefit cap, the two child limit, the bedroom tax and more.
Speaking after the launch of the report, Winter said, “One thing that came up repeatedly with the experts we interviewed was that the level of benefits is not enough for people to live on.”
“That is why Rishi Sunak introduced the £20 uplift in the first place, and that money is needed now more than ever.”
“The Government must also uprate benefits in line with inflation, which is only getting worse. Increasingly, people in Wales are having to choose; freeze or starve.”
“The 5 week wait, the benefit cap, the two child limit and the bedroom tax are all examples of an ideology that stigmatises and demonises people in poverty and causes immense hardship to people in Wales. The Government must look again at all of them.”
“Now we have a clear set of recommendations, the Government need to act on them. The Spring Statement next Wednesday is the moment to do it and show they have heard us.”
Also reacting to the news, Heledd Fychan, Plaid Cymru Senedd Member for South Wales Central, said:
“Wales has the highest levels of child poverty of any of the nations of the UK – something which is both shocking and disgraceful when the UK is regarded as one of the richest countries in the world. The £20-a-week uplift was a lifeline to people who were struggling at the beginning of the pandemic and that struggle has not gone away.”
“We have the statistics and know the impact not having that extra £20 a week extra is having on people, such as having to turn to food banks for support or go without essentials such as heat. The fact that the universal credit had not risen in line with inflation is a political decision made by the UK Government.”
“For the last 10 years child poverty has risen, household debt has risen while pay has frozen and benefits cut. The UK government needs to act on the recommendations of this report or give us the financial powers here in Wales to help those most in need”
The next protest against the cost of living crisis will be held in Cardiff on Saturday 2nd April, at 12.30 by the Nye Bevan statue, Queen St.
