Benefit payments at historic low
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A decade of austerity, the freezing of benefit levels and the introduction of universal credit have helped take benefit payments to their lowest level since 1948, finds a new report from the IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research), ‘Social (in)security: reforming the UK’s safety net’.
The welfare reforms of 2015 (the benefit cap, two-child limit and benefits freeze) combined with some of the most severe cuts the welfare system has seen, has resulted in poverty now growing again, particularly among pensioners, children and those in work.
It asks whether the system can be effective when funding is at an all-time low:
”When Unemployment Benefit was first introduced in 1948 it was equivalent to 20 per cent of average weekly earnings, whereas comparable Universal Credit Standard Allowance payments have fallen to just 12.5 per cent of average earnings today.”
The report finds that the system is at breaking point with some claimants in a constant state of financial insecurity. Clare Mc...
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