Chancellor plots one-off Covid grant for benefit claimants
The Chancellor is reportedly planning a one-off payment for benefit claimants instead of extending the temporary £20-per-week increase.
Rishi Sunak met with the work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey on Friday to discuss the alternatives to the increase in universal credit payments, according to The Times.
He increased universal credit and the basic working tax credit by £20 a week in the first set of policy announcements in the first national lockdown last spring.
The Chancellor is reportedly mulling a one-off £500 payment, which would cost the Treasury approximately £3bn, to avoid an uprising on the backbenches.
Labour is due to hold an opposition day debate to force the government into extending the payments past April with some Tory MPs reportedly in favour of the motion.
The Times reports that some ministers are worried a £500 payment is not enough and it will only need to be increased as the recession deepens.
Sunak is reportedly concerned that any extension of the payment will lead to it becoming permanent.
The Prime Minister appeared to hint this week that he was in favour of scrapping the payment. When asked in front of the cross-party liaison committee of MPs he said: “I think what we want to see is jobs, we want people in employment and we want to see the economy bouncing back.”
“And I think most people in this country want to see a focus on jobs and growth in wages than on welfare, but clearly we have to keep all of these things under review.”
A final decision is yet to be made and will be announced in the Budget at the start of March.