Today (Wednesday 9 December), Unite the Community is holding a Day of Action against cuts to Universal Credit. Unite the Community write:
Universal Credit is a brutal, discredited system which causes severe hardship, misery, suffering and even deaths (not least because there is an enforced 5 week wait before the first award is received).
At the start of the Coronavirus crisis, the government was faced with unprecedented numbers of new claimants who would learn the harsh reality of today’s welfare system for the first time. To ward off the backlash this would create, the government made a snap increase of £20 to the weekly rate for Universal Credit AND suspended the harsh sanctions regime, which sees many claimants unable to feed their children or pay their rent.
BUT this increase is only temporary (currently set to end April 2021) AND it only applies to Universal Credit claimants – people on Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) and Employment Support Allowance (ESA), including many disabled people, have been left behind.
Join Unite Community in our three immediate demands:
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End the five-week wait for payment
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Make the temporary £20 per week extra permanent and give to ALL existing benefit claimants
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Stop Benefit Sanctions
To show our support for these demands, some of our GMLC trustees and staff got together to take some Covid-safe photos in support of the campaign…
