How financial support systems, such as Universal Credit, that help people through difficult times should always at the very least protect people from going without life's essentials.
The social security system should be a public service that we can all rely on, instilling public confidence, with respect for the dignity of individuals at its heart. It should, as a minimum, ensure everyone:
JRF’s mission, as part of a wider strategy to solve poverty, is to push for and speed up the transition to a new way of doing things, including a social security system that enables people to find routes out of poverty. This includes addressing how the social security system interacts with housing, jobs, health and care.
We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and yet people in the UK are going without the essentials we all need to get by.
Everyone’s circumstances can change. Losing your job, getting ill or needing to care for a sick family member, breaking up with your partner (these are things that can happen to any of us). Universal Credit should offer support to anyone who needs it, but right now it’s not providing enough income to cover the cost of essentials like food, household bills and vital travel. Around 5 in 6 low-income households that receive Universal Credit go without life’s essentials.
The basic rate of Universal Credit should at least cover these main costs. Our research indicates that a single adult needs at least £120 a week to afford the essentials. However, Universal Credit is not currently set according to any independent calculation of the price of essentials, and from April 2024 its basic rate is only £91 a week for a single adult. Often people receive even less as they face deductions from their support which are automatically taken at unaffordable rates (for example, to pay off debts to the government).
Over half the people using food banks face these kinds of deductions at the moment they most need help. The very system created to support us when we face challenging times is pushing people deeper into hardship.
We can’t always deal with what life throws at us on our own, so we need to have a system that supports us to afford the essentials while we recover from setbacks. Universal Credit should, at a minimum, always enable people to at least afford essentials. This is why we’re working with Trussell to call for the government to implement an Essentials Guarantee. This would legally embed a protected minimum within Universal Credit, based on an independent calculation of the cost of essentials, ensuring that support could never be pulled below this level.
