The chancellor must heed the plight of poorer families | Letters

Withdrawing the extra £20 paid to those in need would plunge another 400,000 children into povertyTorsten Bell writes that the number of people claiming universal credit has risen over the last pandemic year to more than 6 million families (“Not everyone can afford to save more during lockdown”, Comment). In March, when we are told that the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, intends to withdraw the extra £20 allotted to the claimant families, Bell’s Resolution Foundation states that 400,000 extra children would be thrown below the poverty line. The suffering of the families on universal credit has been known since the publication of Professor Philip Alston’s UN report on poverty in the UK.We two who have signed these words insist that the £20 must remain awarded in the March budget, and indeed be raised forthwith; brutality should not be the signature of any government in our poor country.Vanessa Redgrave and Miriam MargolyesLondon W4 Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2021/feb/21/letters-chancellor-must-heed-plight-of-poorer-families #poverty #universal_credit #social_exclusion #coronavirus #society