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Moray councillor backs campaign to halt Universal Credit cuts


By Alan Beresford

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A BUCKIE councillor has backed an SNP campaign to halt cuts to Universal Credit (UC).

Councillor Sonya Warren: Planned cuts to Universal Credit are "brutal". Picture: Daniel Forsyth
Councillor Sonya Warren: Planned cuts to Universal Credit are "brutal". Picture: Daniel Forsyth

The party have launched a campaign against plans by the UK Conservative government to cut the £20 UC uplift in October which was brought in last year as part of the response to lockdown. In addition, the SNP are calling for the uplift to be extended to other legacy benefits.

Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has highlighted that slashing the uplift will plunge half a million more people into poverty - 200,000 of which are children - as well as “knock out” the benefits the Scottish Child Payment brings to low income families in Scotland.

Buckie SNP councillor Sonya Warren has voiced her support for the campaign.

She said: "The £20 uplift has been a lifeline and it would be a devastating blow for society if this was snatched away by the UK Tory government.

"It will push hundreds of thousands households – including 200,000 children – over the brink at a time they need support most.

“The pandemic is not over, and the economic impact of it will be felt for years to come if the Tories at Westminster do not take the necessary steps to rebuild the social security system they’ve spent the last decade dismantling. It is now vital they make the Universal Credit uplift a permanent fixture and extend it to legacy benefits.

"If they go ahead with these further brutal austerity cuts, it will be another example of the SNP government putting money in people's pockets just for the Tories to take it away again. Westminster stands in the way of our efforts to pull people out of poverty – independence is the only way we can truly secure a strong and equal recovery for Scotland."

Six former Tory Work and Pensions Secretaries, as well as the Northern Research Group, which is made up of 50 Tory MPs, have also recently echoed the SNP’s calls to keep the uplift.


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