We have to oppose the end of the universal credit uplift

Have you ever done a supermarket shop with £20 in your pocket and nothing more? I have and I was surprised at how much you can buy. Or could buy if you were more responsible than I was, aged 25. I didn’t get the best out of that £20, let me tell you. Nobody needs a whole chocolate trifle (serves 4), let alone several.

But now I am older with responsibilities galore, and mouths to feed other than my own, so I would spend that £20 a lot more wisely. I would hope to spend it more like many of the good parents on Universal Credit have been doing since the government agreed to increase welfare benefit by this amount during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many have found it an absolute godsend.

So when it was confirmed this week that there was no plan to extend the £20 top-up scheme beyond the autumn, there was an outpouring of anger from many who are in work that does not pay enough to live on, and have come to rely on the extra cash.

They have taken to posting photos of their weekly shop on social media, and it is clear that it is just about possible to feed a family of four for £20 if you absolutely have to. I’m not saying it involves many treats, or that it’s anywhere close to ideal. But it’s possible. And many do it. They have to.

Labour has said they will oppose the reversal of the £20 top up, and I hope they do so as aggressively as possible.

Perhaps some Conservative MPs think twenty quid is just change you find down the back of the sofa. Perhaps they can’t believe you would really miss it that much. Perhaps they are so used to putting whatever they want in the trolley and just handing over a credit card at the end that they have no idea what things cost. Perhaps they don’t even do their own shopping.

I wouldn’t put me in charge of this – I’d only spend it all on chocolate trifles. But I wouldn’t put them in charge either. They have even less of a clue than I do.