Benefits freeze must end under the new PM, Amber Rudd insists
WORK and Pensions boss Amber Rudd today said it is “essential” that the next Prime Minister ends the benefits freeze.
The current four-year cap on working age benefits is up for review next year.
Ms Rudd said she had already held conversations with Chancellor Philip Hammond over raising benefits in line with inflation once again.
It would give low-income households on benefits such as Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support or Housing Benefit a £200 a year boost.
The Work and Pensions Secretary said she would be making a “strong case” for the next Government to find the £1.5billion a year needed to lift the benefits freeze, which was launched in 2015 by then Chancellor George Osborne.
Ms Rudd first piled pressure on Mr Hammond to lift the cap in January this year but the plans were cast into doubt after he warned that extra money would be needed to fill a £90billion black hole under a No Deal Brexit.
But today Ms Rudd increased the heat on the next Chancellor by telling the Andrew Marr Show that she “would expect that to happen whatever situation because it needs to happen”.
She added: “I’ve already had conversations with the Chancellor and I would expect to do so with any future government. It is essential we take that freeze off.
“It is not for me to guarantee, I am not the Chancellor, but I will certainly guarantee that I will be making a very strong case for it whatever role I may or may not be playing.”
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The Resolution Foundation has warned that continuing benefits freeze next year would leave low-income households more than £200 a year worse off.
Single parents could be as much as £260 poorer.
The think tank said scrapping the freeze would lift 200,000 families out of poverty.
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