The benefits freeze is set to end in April – with MPs agreeing a rise in line with inflation today – but charities and campaigners are warning that it will do little to improve life for Britain’s poorest.
Benefits and tax credits will rise by 1.7 per cent, bringing an end to the four-year freeze, which was brought in as part of ex-Chancellor George Osborne’s austerity measures.
The hated policy has left claimants experiencing real-terms decreases every year and Citizens Advice has called the end of the freeze a “welcome step in the right direction”.
But their “Making Ends Meet: The impact of the benefits freeze on people in debt” report has revealed that four in 10 households that receive benefits that have been frozen would still not have enough money to cover their costs by 2024 if rises continued every year.
The freeze has already meant that more people are finding themselves battling to make ends meet too. In the first five months of the current financial year, 40 per cent of the claimants that Citizens Advice helped were in that position. That is an increase of 25 per cent since the freeze began.
Part-time worker and Universal Credit claimant Sheila, 64, struggles to cover her monthly costs with benefits payments that can change on a monthly basis. She is now trapped in both council tax and rent arrears that mean she is forced to rely on help from a foodbank.