This submission presents an analysis conducted by Policy in Practice on the impact of maintaining the Universal Credit £20 a week uplift on households ability to meet all their essential costs.
It is based on household level data shared with us by 17 local authorities, which gives us a unique insight into the direct impact of policy changes on tens of thousands of households.
Our analysis shows an extra 224,000 households would be unable to meet all their essential costs in April 2021 if the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit (UC) was taken away.
If these households were not able to meet their essential costs, this would impact 229,000 children within these households.