Universal Credit must not be cut until April 2022 "at the very least", MPs demand today. The Commons Work and Pensions Committee has piled pressure on Chancellor Rishi Sunak not to slash the lifeline to 5.9million people in his March 3 Budget.
The cross-party group stood by its call for a £20 rise in UC - which took force in March 2020 due to coronavirus - to be made permanent.
But the MPs today add that, if making it permanent does not happen immediately, the current rate of the benefit must at least be extended for 12 months until April next year.
The £6bn move would avoid plunging up to 300,000 more children into poverty, MPs heard. The benefit's future should then be confirmed this Autumn.
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