The Poverty Alliance have responded to today’s Spring Statement from the Chancellor, describing the failure to end the benefits freeze as a missed opportunity to unlock hundreds of thousands of people across the UK from poverty.
Despite continued calls from anti-poverty organisations – as well as the Work and Pensions Committee – to end the freeze a year early, the Chancellor failed to make mention of the policy within the Statement. With analysis from the Resolution Foundation showing that the freeze will leave a low income couple with children £200 worse off next year, it is clear that the decision will further tighten the grip of poverty on people’s lives in communities across the country.
Peter Kelly (Director, Poverty Alliance) said:
“The failure to use today’s Spring Statement to end the benefits freeze represents a failure to protect families across the country who have been swept up in the rising tide of poverty. We’re a society that believes in compassion and justice, but where is the compassion and justice in continuing a policy that has served only to tighten the grip of poverty on people’s lives? At a time when so many people are struggling to keep their head above water, the decision not to end the freeze simply cannot be justified.”
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