‘Punishing us’: despair as families face real-term cut to universal credit
Such is the Begum family’s financial strife that seven-year-old Anisa recently told her mother they were so poor they might as well move to where her grandmother lives: Bangladesh.
Fleeing to one of the world’s more impoverished countries may seem strange, but the fact it is being discussed in one east London home is telling of widening desperation. Now, at the end of an already gruelling week, things could be about to get worse for millions with real-terms welfare cuts reportedly under consideration by a government that recently cut taxes for the rich.
For the Begums – mother, father and three children – the forecast £90 a week real-terms fall in their universal credit payments would leave them not just penniless after regular outgoings, but unable to switch on the heating, buy new clothes or even afford enough groceries, they said. Already they are “frozen” because they cannot afford to feed the meter for heating.
“Can you imagine?” said Alifjane Begum, Anisa’s mother. “We have three young kids to feed. We just want to put food on their plates and something on their backs. For clothing I would have to go to charity shops; for food we’d definitely have to start going to the food bank.”
Begum’s husband works as a minicab driver, but has lung problems after contracting Covid-19 that limits earnings. Their monthly welfare already goes fast: £450 on rent, £200 on council tax and £280 on utilities. Sometimes they have about £100 left for food and other things. Other times they have to borrow from family. Recently Anisa asked for ear muffs, but the family cannot afford such trifles.
“I really don’t know what to do,” her mother said. “I want to fly away with my kids and hide.”
About 5.8 million people in the UK rely on universal
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