With just weeks to go before the Government take £20 a week off Universal Credit, I wrote to Therese Coffey to ask when they are going to get round to informing the 6 million families affected. Since I last wrote, it was revealed that the planned cut will leave families with only half the income necessary for a decent standard of living. It was also noted that more than 1.1 million children are now penalised by the benefit cap. I told the Mirror that we can’t let this Government push more and more children into poverty and hunger. My parliamentary work also exposed a sharp rise in benefit related deaths. This is simply wrong. This system is supposed to be a safety net. You can read the BBC report here.

Meanwhile in Stalybridge & Hyde the claimant count has risen. There were 3,820 actual claimants in the constituency in June 2021, which is 1,460 higher than March 2020 before the economic impact of the pandemic hit. I will continue to push for quality and secure jobs in the constituency and across the country and hold the Government to account when their decisions fail to support this.