Martin Lewis asks Rishi Sunak why he's 'not willing' to help legacy benefit claimants
Martin welcomed the £20 uplift extension and minimum income floor news but he then quoted Claire, a benefit claimant who was struggling with the system: “I’m shielding, adult disabled son for nearly a year [are some words missing here? doesn’t run quite right], huge extra expenses due to Covid, why have people who are on legacy disability benefits e.g. Employment Support Allowance not been included in the extra £20 a week Universal Credit payment; why isn’t this backdated?”
Following this example, Martin noted the same problems are affecting income support and job seekers allowance and a number of other legacy benefits.
Martin asked the Chancellor if he’d look into these issues and in response, Mr Sunak detailed the following: “So the original rationale for doing the temporary uplift in universal credit was to help those in low income, people in work but on lower incomes, whose incomes were going to be affected by the crisis and it’s UC and working tax credit that are the benefits that capture the vast vast vast majority if not all of those people, the legacy benefits don’t do that.”
Before Mr Sunak could continue, Martin interrupted: “But the disabled, the carers out there who aren’t getting that support?”
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