Seventy-five years after the British welfare state was born, our poorest people are about to be cast aside by the government’s universal credit cut
- Gordon Brown is the WHO ambassador for global health financing, and was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010
There is, of course, never a right moment to cut social security benefits. But with the world dangling at the edge of an economic precipice, the price of basics – food and energy – threatening to rocket upwards and 30,000 Covid-19 cases a day, lives and livelihoods still hang in the balance. At this point, the government’s planned £20 a week cut to universal credit in October seems more economically illogical, socially divisive and morally indefensible than anything I have witnessed in this country’s politics.
For 75 years, the British welfare state has provided a safety net for families in dire need. After the cuts go into effect on 6 October, the last line of support for families will not be the welfare state, but food banks. Poor people in Britain can no longer rely on social security for the minimum they need to prevent their descent into extreme poverty. Their lifeline is now charity.