More than one million pounds a week will be wiped from the Glasgow economy tomorrow if the Universal Credit cut goes ahead.
Despite widespread condemnation and opposition to the move, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is pressing ahead with his plan to remove the uplift of £20 a week which was introduced at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
In Glasgow there has been a big rise in the number of households claiming Universal Credit.
According to official Government figures, in May 2020, three months after the start of the first lockdown, there were 47,156 households in the city claiming Universal credit.
By May this year that had increased to 54,547 households a jump of 15% in a year.
In total the latest figures show there are 71,000 people in Glasgow claiming Universal Credit.
Single people and couples who are joint claimants get different levels of Universal Credit while all claimants got the £20 uplift.
For example, a couple aged 25 or over had their payments increased from £507 to £594 per month.
A single adult aged 25 or over increased from £323 to £409 per month.
The uplift of £20 means that for the 54,547 households in Glasgow having their income cut by £20 per week is a total of £1,090,940 lost to the city.
The most common award is between £300 to £400 per month who will see their income cut by 25%
The cut has been defended by the Conservatives as "no longer appropriate".
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister, said: “There was a whole package of measures, from furlough to bounce back loans to the Covid uplift, that are no longer appropriate.”
While campaigners said the plan to cut the £20 a week must be stopped.
John Dickie of Child Poverty Action Scotland, said: “The Prime Minister must scrap the £20 a week cut to universal credit, and here in Scotland the First Minister’s welcome commitment to doubling the Scottish child payment must be brought forward as a matter of utmost urgency.”
The First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all written to the Prime Minister to urge him to reverse the plan.
Nicola Sturgeon said: “This UK Government and the Chancellor, I don’t know if they think people are just daft and can have the wool so easily pulled over their eyes.
“The cut to Universal Credit, which is due to take effect later this week, will take £20 a week from the poorest families in the country, leave some parents unable to feed their children or heat their homes.”
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