1,000 signatures reached
To: Mel Stride, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Exempt Cost-of-Living Payments for Universal Credit Claimants
PCS union members in the civil service, along with thousands of other public sector workers, have been offered Cost-of-Living related lump payments by government. In the civil service, the payment is £1500.
Like in many other sectors of the economy and in the public sector, thousands of low paid civil servants are also in receipt of Universal Credit payments. For them, the £1500 could be detrimental to their UC payment level, effectively being wiped out by reductions to their UC payment.
We know that powers exist and are available to government to exempt the £1500 payment from UC. Indeed, this power has been applied to cost-of-living payments that the government made to all UK households earlier this year.
PCS union believes that the same should be applied to the £1500 payments now being made to civil servants.
We are inviting you to write to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride MP to ask him to apply the exemption for Universal Credit claimants.
Why is this important?
Workers who are also in receipt of Universal Credit are among those most negatively impacted by the current cost-of-living crisis.
Where unions are winning payments from government in this respect, it is unfair that those who also claim Universal Credit do not benefit from those payments.
The government has available powers to protect UC claimants from this unintended consequence and exempt the payment from UC calculations.