Let them eat ketchup: Hardship drives 1 million surge in universal credit claims, says TUC

Low-paid workers are now having their incomes topped up by the state, but the value of the benefit has been tumbling in real terms leading to rising debt and food poverty

The pandemic has led to a surge in hardship related universal credit claims (Reuters)

This morning sees the release of some fairly awful numbers by the TUC, which has found that the number of workers on universal credit has ballooned by 1.3 million since the dawn of the pandemic.

The union body focussed its analysis – based on figures from the Office for National Statistics – on people in some kind of work, which may be part-time, may be self-employed. These are people who earn so little that they qualify to have their incomes topped up by the state.

Some of increase in claims will be down to the steady migration of people from the smorgasbord of benefits which were replaced by universal credit. They include child tax credit, housing benefit, income support, Working Tax Credit.