Sunak defends cutting universal credit uplift

The chancellor Rishi Sunak has defended the government’s decision to cut the universal credit uplift.

Whilst giving evidence to the economic affairs committee, the chancellor stressed the uplift was always temporary, arguing in favour of the government’s recent decision to slash the universal credit taper rate by 8%.

“We had a welfare system that existed before coronavirus, that there were no plans to change. We did something temporarily that has come to an end.”

The Resolution Foundation found that 75% of households on universal credit will be worse off after the £20 a week cut. When pressed by Lord Fox, Sunak said that “what the cut to universal credit does is just make sure that that work really pays.”