UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday he would change the benefit system to encourage more people to work, reducing the “declining rate” for applicants for universal credit, a benefit for the unemployed and low-paid people. The graduated rate is the amount of universal credit that people lose as they increase their income from work. Sunak said he would reduce the rate from 63% to 55%.
“Almost 2 million families will keep, on average, an additional 1,000 pounds a year,” Sunak told parliament during his budget speech. “We are going to introduce this in a few weeks, and no later than December 1,” he said. The rate change comes after Sunak halted a weekly 20 pound ($ 27.50) increase in universal credit that was introduced at the height of the pandemic, a move that affected 4.4 million households in from mid-October.
Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation think-tank, said a gradual new level would improve the welfare system, but added: “It better helps universal credit applicants – the poorest (who don’t work. usually not) offset the 20 pound cut. “($ 1 = 0.7272 pounds)
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