UK will not reinstate temporary increase in state benefits – minister

Shoppers hold umbrellas as they walk, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Oxford Street in London, Britain December 16, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville

LONDON, May 23 (Reuters) – The British government will not reinstate a temporary increase in state benefits, introduced at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, as part of plans to tackle the cost of living crisis said a junior finance minister. said Monday.

Britain increased Universal Credit, a benefit for unemployed and low-income people, by 20 pounds ($25) a week during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the additional payment ended in October of the year in a movement that affected 4.4 million households.

Some have called for it to be reinstated as soaring inflation leaves many struggling to pay rising food, fuel and energy bills. Read more

“We have always been explicitly clear that this was a temporary response to the pandemic,” Chief Treasury Secretary Simon Clarke told BBC Radio.

“It’s not going to come back. The question is how best do we envision the next range of solutions to deal with the challenges.”

Last year the government cut the ‘sliding rate’ for Universal Credit claimants, the amount they lose as they increase their earnings from work, and Clarke said it was ‘precisely the kind of a genuine conservative solution to this issue that we want to see”.

($1 = 0.7957 pounds)

Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, editing by Elizabeth Piper

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