MPs Urged by Progressive Alliance to Stand Up for 22,840 Families in MK Impacted by Universal Credit Cut

The Labour/Lib Dem Progressive Alliance will be bringing a motion to Council calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to reverse the £20 cut to Universal credit - and urging local MPs Ben Everitt and Iain Stewart to join the fight.

The £20 uplift to was cut on 6 October, and will impact around 6 million people on Universal Credit, including 22,840 families in Milton Keynes according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Jenni Ferrans will be moving the motion:

"We're already seeing empty supermarket shelves and rising food and energy prices, and a further increase in poverty now, with Christmas right around the corner, will bring more suffering."

"Even more MK people, including children will be forced into extreme poverty, having to choose between heating and eating this winter. The impacts are devastating. Taking away the £20 safety net is completely immoral, unfair and quite simply dangerous."

Councillor Emily Darlington, Labour Progressive Alliance Cabinet Member for Adults, Housing and Healthy Communities, will second the motion: "Slashing Universal Credit at a time when food and energy prices are going up is completely indefensible."

"Families in Milton Keynes are suffering because of this cut and the Tories failure to grip the economic crisis; our MPs have failed to stand up for them."