MILLIONS of people across the UK are to be contacted to confirm that their £20-a-week Universal Credit uplift will be cut, Therese Coffey has confirmed.
Around six million people will see their benefits slashed by the end of September.
The Work and Pensions Secretary told the Work and Pensions Committee earlier today that there are no plans to make the emergency benefit increase permanent as the Tory government is set to axe the policy in the coming months.
Charities and campaigners have warned that cutting the benefit will mean 400,000 children in the UK will be pushed into poverty while the Children’s Commissioner for Scotland has warned the Tory plan would be “catastrophic” for families.
READ MORE: Many benefit claimants have been frozen out of the £20/week uplift
The SNP have said the move would see 20,000 kids in Scotland alone plunged into poverty.
Coffey said: “Ahead of October we will start communicating with the current claimants who receive the £20 to make them aware that that will be being phased out.
"And they will start to see an adjustment in their payments.
"I think it really kicks in largely in October, but it will start to kick in I think towards late September for some people.”
Universal Credit was raised during the Covid pandemic from £318 to £410-a-month for a single person and was extended for a further six months to September but charities and opposition parties are calling for it to be made permanent.
But Sunak has so far refused to cave to that pressure – even after six previous ministers called on the Chancellor to maintain the uplift, including Iain Duncan Smith.
Tory MP for Amber Valley, Nigel Mills, pressed Coffey on whether she had lobbied Sunak for the top up to be kept but she said the decision to end it had been collective.
When asked by MPs, Coffey admitted that she was "not in any way assuming everything’s going to be okay" in October but added "we're not putting our heads in the sand".
READ MORE: Tory ex-welfare ministers pile pressure on Rishi Sunak over Universal Credit plans
The Government is said to be focusing on a return to work but Coffey admitted that only around 40,000 young jobseekers have started on the Tory Kickstart work scheme – a fraction of the 250,000 they had hoped for.
DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield said while 230,000 jobs were being advertised, he said "I don’t think" they will all start by December.
He added: "I'm absolutely determined to drive as close to it as I possibly can, if not exceed it.”
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