Find more money for universal credit, says senior Tory Steve Baker

The government should find £10bn a year to boost universal credit, former Tory minister Steve Baker has said.

The £20-a-week increase to the benefit officially ended on Wednesday despite warnings about a squeeze on living standards and rising prices.

Mr Baker said it should be an "absolute priority" to find extra funds as part of the upcoming spending review.

The government says the benefit boost was always meant to be temporary and it is helping the most needy.

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Claims the government is out of touch with the plight of low-income families were fuelled by an interview with the New Statesman on Wednesday by Tory grandee, Sir Peter Bottomley.

He said MPs need a pay rise as some were struggling financially to cope on an annual salary of just over £80,000.

Peter Bottomley says MPs are underpaid

"I don't know how they manage. It's really grim," he said, arguing that a salary of around £110-£115,000 a year was needed to bring them in to line with GPs.

Speaking to LBC radio, Mr Bottomley explained he was not arguing for pay rises.

He said he was trying to make the point that increasing MPs' salaries would make it easier to widen the pool of people interested in switching their careers to become parliamentarians.

Higher wages would make it possible for headteachers and senior executives in nursing to come to sit in Parliament rather than it being the preserve of the independently wealthy, he said.

His comments come as a social media film emerged of Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey singing (I've Had) The Time of My Life at this week's Conservative conference in Manchester.

Labour called the timing of her karaoke performance, as benefits are cut for millions of people, "an insult and a disgrace".

But Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said it was "unfair" to link the two.

He told ITV's Good Morning Britain that "parties and dance-offs and singing is a feature of all party conferences", and Ms Coffey had also announced the hardship fund at Manchester.

No crisis

Ministers have admitted that many UK households could face "a very difficult winter".

Energy prices are surging at the same time as the universal credit top-up being withdrawn and taxes are rising to fund the NHS and social care.

But asked during the Conservative Party conference about the pressure on family incomes, the prime minister told the BBC he was "not worried" because supply chain issues will sort themselves out "rapidly".

And he said the economy was facing the "stresses and strains" of a post-Covid recovery as it moves to a "new approach" with higher wages and lower immigration.

He said government schemes, such as a £500m hardship fund, would help those on the lowest incomes.

Speaking to ITV's Peston, Mr Baker - an influential figure on the right of the Conservative Party - said the government should find £10bn a year to improve universal credit.

Steve Baker says universal credit needs to be reformed

He said the £20-a-week top-up, which was introduced to help people on low incomes through the pandemic, should be retained.

He also said he had urged the government to improve the taper rate, which reduces the amount individuals can claim for every extra pound they earn, as an "absolute priority".

But he added that he will vote for whatever the government decides in its Spending Review at the end of this month.

Currently for every £1 claimants earn over their work allowance their benefit is reduced by 63p.

Speaking on the BBC News Channel, Shadow Business Secretary, Ed Miliband said Labour was "not giving up" on attempts to reverse the cut to universal credit.

"It beggars belief" he said ,that in the context of escalating energy prices and tax rises, "the government is ploughing ahead" with the cut to the benefit.

People are facing a "double whammy" and the situation is going to be "unbearable for so many families" he added and targeting support through the social security system is the best way to help them.