Publications

The Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2021, passed yesterday on Tuesday 9th February, increases social security payments by the rate of CPI inflation (0.5%) from 1st April 2021. However, if the £20 a week uplift to UC is not made permanent in the Budget, this uprating is negated. From April, if the £20 weekly uplift is removed the value of UC’s Standard Allowance will drop by as much as a quarter (25%), when people need this money most. Removing the £20 a week uplift will leave the Standard Allowance for UC worth less in real terms in 2021-22 than when it was first introduced 8 years ago in 2013.

CAS is calling for: The £20 a week uplift to be made permanent

In this submission CAS sets out two much needed policy actions that must be included in the Budget. The first is to ensure that Universal Credit (UC) is maintained at an adequate level to effectively fulfil its function as a vital safety net and public service. Making the £20 a week increase permanent is the first step to ensuring that UC can meet the needs of the increasing number of people relying on UC. The second is to allow UC to become a better tool for recovery and support more people into work when the economy can open back up, as well as those already in work and claiming UC.

CAS recommends the £20 a week increase to UC is made permanent.

If the uplift is removed, it will have the following impacts:

• People across Scotland on Universal Credit will face a significant income shock and be pushed into poverty.
• Financial hardship will be exacerbated, with wider health and economic impacts.
• Those already struggling will be hardest hit. An additional 1 in 6 Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) clients in complex debt will be pushed into an income crisis.

CAS Financial Statements for year ended 31st March 2019.

This document summarises trends in advice code data related to housing. All charts are based on advice code data. These are recorded by advisers every time advice in relation to a particular topic is issued. All figures are expressed as percentages of their “parent” advice code category: e.g. housing advice is expressed as a proportion of all advice issues, and PRS advice is expressed as a proportion of all housing advice. This allows for more effective comparisons between months when overall numbers of clients fluctuate and/or there are changes in advice provision (e.g. the shift to telephone and email at lockdown).

Statistical briefing on advice given; client demographics based on an annual survey of CAB clients undertake for 4 weeks in November 2019 including comparison to SIMD data.