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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.

MP Briefing in support of 18 January Opposition motion to keep the £20 a week UC uplift.

An unprecedented number of people have claimed UC for the first time since March, with the total number of UC recipients in Scotland doubling since January 2020 to 475,000 people. At the start of the pandemic, CAS welcomed the UK Government increasing UC payments by £20 a week – an annual increase of £1,040. CAS now recommends that the £20 increase to Universal Credit is made permanent in the Spring Budget.

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.