A CHARITY supporting families suffering hardship in east Durham’s former mining communities says a decision to cut the uplift in Universal Credit in September will drive thousands “over the precipice” into deeper poverty.

In his budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said a £20 uplift provided during the pandemic will be cut from the end of September.

East Durham Trust chief executive Graham Easterlow said: “What is reassuring in some way is that they are extending the Universal Credit across to September “instead of removing as was expected in April).

The challenge for us though is that it is a deadline and a hard end – there isn’t thought to tail it off.

“We still face the prospect of having families losing that £86. And by the time we get to September, taking into accounjt inflation and the cost of living, that amount will be much more in real terms.

“People still face that cliff edge and the idea that they have to choose between heating or eating or indeed not having either”

He added: “If we just take food, weekly on average we have a rise of 80 per cent in our food crisis services – post a 400 per cent rise this time last year. We are seeing a sustained need for food.

"I have been in a meeting this morning where we were discussing the the issue of food programme for holiday activities for children who are on free school meals.

“During this lockdown we have been delivering food as we always do to children and families.

“One school referred 90 children who do not qualify for free school meals that are in food crisis.

“That tells you that those people have fallen off and are in the process of falling off - and that is before we remove the £86 from their pockets.

“I cannot see a September cut off as anything other that a fall off the cliff edge, in which we see thousands of people across our area in east Durham and tens of thousands of people across our region being pushed a deeper poverty or into poverty.”

Mr Easterlow said one his volunteers, who is on Universal Credit, remarked there was the assumption that everyone on credit does not work, which is “completely wrong”.

He said: “We have people who are working smaller hours and zero hours, who rely on that top up of Universal Credit

“The volunteer said to me “if wasn’t something they wanted to give us, why give it to us in the first place? Now that we have been given it they can’t just simply take it away because we have come rely on that in this current crisis.”

The Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Paul Butler, said: “I am delighted to see the announcements in the budget of two significant investments in Job and prosperity for the North-East namely the establishment of the Treasury Northern campus in Darlington and the creation of one of the nine English Freeport zones in Teesside. It would have been even better if we had been awarded 2 Freeports as was hoped.

“The North East has a long and rich heritage of rising to the challenge of new industries. The current operations in offshore and other renewable energy, subsea work and continuing activities in the automotive industry offer great opportunities. Now we can add government and trade link development. It is a very exciting time and I am thrilled that the North East will be their new home.

“Sadly this investment was not matched by the limited extension of the uplift in Universal Credit until September. Our most needy families and households really needed this to be for at least the next 12 months.

“The Chancellor does have a deeply unenviable job and deserves credit for many brave actions over the past year."