Mansfield Constituency Labour Party For Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse and Warsop
New analysis by Mansfield Labour, based on the latest Universal Credit data reveals the staggering cost of the Universal Credit cut to local families and the local economy. The cut, which will see 3,500 recipients of Universal Credit lose £1,040 a year, will cost Mansfield £3.6m.
The analysis comes as Conservative MPs (including Ben Bradley MP) refuse to back a Labour motion in the House of Commons to ditch the cut.
Andy Abrahams, leader of Mansfield Labour Group said:
“We’re still in this crisis. Families in Mansfield are desperately struggling to get back on their feet, yet this government wants to kick their legs out from under them.
“Whacking families with a £1,000 cut in a support won’t just hurt them, it will hammer the local economy too. These proposals will take food off the table and £3.6m out of the local economy.
“Yet at the same time as the Conservatives hammer working people we know that they can find £2bn for crony contracts for their friends and donors. That tells you everything you need to know about whose side this government is really on – and it’s not us here in Mansfield.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
3,500 people in Mansfield receive Universal Credit and are set to see a £20 a week – £1,040 a year – cut at the end of September.
That’s a combined total of £3.64m
The latest UC claimant count data is published here (figures used above are from latest version, on 20th September 2021)
Labour’s motion was passed by 253 votes to zero. Just 4 Conservative MPs joined Labour in opposing the cut. The motion read: That this House calls on the Government to cancel its planned cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit which from the end of September 2021 will reduce support for many hardworking families by £1,040 a year.
Universal Credit – the facts:
· There is a growing consensus in opposition to these plans, including Labour, the public, the House of Commons, dozens of charities and campaign groups and now, the 6 former Conservative Work and Pensions Secretaries of State all agree that this money must remain in place.
· In September 2020, analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found that the withdrawal of the uplift will risk bringing 700,000 more people, including 300,000 more children into poverty. It could also bring 500,000 more people into deep poverty (classified as being more than 50% below the poverty line).