Covid-19: Coffey on future of universal credit extension

Ministers will decide "shortly" whether to extend the £20-a-week increase in universal credit, the work and pensions secretary has said.

Therese Coffey said the government was working to “provide the best support to people throughout the pandemic”.

Asked on BBC Breakfast whether she was lobbying to keep the temporary increase going, she said: “I don’t tend to play out policy discussions through the media”.

Labour, the SNP, other opposition parties, and some Tory MPs have been urging the government to extend the weekly increase, due to end in March.