Our 2021 Budget submission | CPAG
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Our 2021 Budget submission

Briefing
Post date: 
09 February 2021

Our submission to the UK government ahead of the 2021 Budget makes the following recommendations: 

  • Use social security as an effective fiscal stimulus to help the economy recover from the pandemic
  • Prioritise long-term productive employment over getting people back into any job quickly
  • Invest in childcare, in particular extended schools, to help increase the labour market opportunities of parents
  • Keep the £20 upratings – removing them would see 300,000 children pushed into poverty
  • Scrap the benefit cap and two-child limit – this would only cost £1.4 billion and would pull 200,000 children out of poverty and 450,000 children out of deep poverty
  • Increase child benefit by £10 a week – providing a small income boost to all families affected by COVID. This would reduce child poverty by 450,000
  • Increase the eligibility threshold for free school meals to all families receiving universal credit or working tax credit

 

PDF icon Read our submission
Benefit cap Briefing Childcare Children’s benefits Coronavirus Free school meals Two child limit UK
Related to this post: 

Women in the pandemic: experiences from Covid Realities

08 March 2021
This time last year the odds were already stacked against women. Women are more likely to be in insecure, low paid employment; women are more likely to be in poverty; and women carry out more unpaid work than men. It seemed certain the pandemic would make inequality more pronounced. But how have things panned out? Twelve months later we want to share the experiences of low-income women who are part of the Covid Realities project.
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CPAG response to Budget 2021

03 March 2021
Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham said: “Child poverty levels were already too high pre-pandemic yet children and parents were noticeable by their absence from this budget. Extending the £20 uplift is vital because struggling families cannot keep afloat without it, but that will be as true in six months as it is now. This decision only postpones the pain. The chancellor promised certainty to business – children and their families deserve no less.”
Benefit levels Coronavirus Press release UK Universal credit

Falling Through the Net - briefing 2

This is the second in a series of regular briefings which highlight some of the persistent gaps in support that exist for children and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence of these gaps is drawn from our Early Warning System (EWS) which collects case studies from frontline practitioners working directly with families on the problems they are seeing with the social security system.
Benefit delivery Benefit levels Briefing Coronavirus Disability benefits Early warning system Early warning system (Scotland) Legal UK Universal credit Work and pay