Georgie O on 26 March 2021
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Q. What did you think about the new budget? Thoughts on the £20 uplift extension, or what was missing?
Hi, what do I think about the new budget ideas of extending the 20-pound uplift for another six months? I'm a bit dubious. A bit of a dubious way of getting out of paying money that you kind of owe people. We had a five-year sort of benefit freeze. Unless you can argue about we've had quite a lot of help during covid and many people haven't which is something that needs to be addressed and I think looked at as well. There was talk about giving a one-off 500 pounds which is still six months worth of the uplift anyway.  Basically, I agree that the 20-pound can't continue from the government's point of view. Especially now more people are on Universal Credit than before. I believe this should have been extended towards people on ESA and other benefits that are not getting this uplift. Because at the end of the day unless they're working they need the money. Maybe 10 pounds, half it, 10 pounds keep it going. We're owed the money.  Everything's gone up. Things are still going up dramatically and fast and if the benefits don't go up then we're just on a massive pay decrease. I don't think it's good or sustainable. And yeah, I don't know, pitiful, shameful. Yeah, I could think of lots of words I'm going to try and keep quiet on this one.
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