Hartlepool's leaders writing to Boris Johnson demanding borough's '4,800' people on Universal Credit keep £20 increase in benefit

Councillors say their are thousands of people on universal credit in the town, and losing money will make it very hard for them to make ends meet.

Universal Credit is a benefit to support working-age people, which was introduced to replace six previous benefits and merge them into one payment, designed to make claiming benefits simpler.

Universal Credit payments were increased by £20 a week in April 2020 as part of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s early Covid-19 economic response.

The increase is currently scheduled to end on March 31, and calls have been made by numerous MPs to keep it in place.

At the recent Hartlepool Borough Council full council meeting, a motion was put forward to write to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak and to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson demanding the increase be made permanent.

Raised by Cllr Amy Prince, and signed by other members of the Labour Party on the council, it called for the £20 increase to be extended to claimants on legacy benefits also.

Speaking at the full council meeting, she said figures showed as of September 2020, there were 4,800 people in Hartlepool claiming Universal Credit, which was an increase of 1,800 in 12 months.

Cllr Prince said: “I looked a little bit further and saw 16% of our 20-to-24-year-olds in Hartlepool are claiming Universal Credit while they’re looking for work, and the national statistic for that is 9.2%, so we’re quite significantly over the national average.

“We all know that there’s problems with employment in the town so when I looked at what they could claim, and then after their bills, it would end up where they would have £45 to feed themselves for the month with this uplift gone.

“I think we can all agree that £45 is not a lot of money to feed yourself for a month.

“We all care about the town, no matter our opinions, we all care and we care about our residents.”

The motion also states the council will work with other local government organisations to form a coalition to pressure the Government to make the £20 increase to Universal Credit permanent.

Cllr Brenda Harrison seconded the motion, which was supported by all councillors from all political parties at the full council meeting.

She said: “Hartlepool was a trial area for this so our residents on Universal Credit have had to deal with this for a lot longer.

“The whole system in my opinion needs looking at, but I think to actually give extra money and then take it away from people is absolutely disgraceful.”

Downing Street has insisted no decision has been made on whether to keep or scrap the increase, and said Chancellor Rishi Sunak will update the public on the Government’s plans “shortly”.

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