Recommendation 1

When the Chancellor announced the temporary increase in March 2020, few of us imagined that we would still be in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic nearly a year later. Since March, the number of people claiming Universal Credit has risen from 3 million to around 6 million. The numbers of job vacancies remain far below their pre-pandemic levels. Removing the increase now, while the impact of the pandemic is still being keenly felt, would plunge hundreds of thousands of households, including children, into poverty. For the millions already living in poverty, it would drag them down into destitution. We urge the Government not to end the temporary increase in Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit, as planned, on 6 April 2021.