Jeremy Corbyn has called Universal Credit an "unmitigated disaster" as he outlined proposals to depart from a system designed to "punish and police". The benefit cap and two-child limit would be immediately ditched, which Labour says would bring 300,000 children out of poverty. The punitive sanctions regime criticised for forcing people to use food banks would also be scrapped if Labour won a general election.
Paddy Lillis - Usdaw General Secretary says: "Universal Credit has been universally discredited by the Tories. Usdaw has for many years called for the rollout of Universal Credit to be halted, to allow a full review and overhaul of how the Government supports the incomes of working people who are already struggling to make ends meet. So we very much welcome Labour's commitment to scrap Universal Credit, which has been badly mismanaged, fundamentally undermined by austerity cuts and caused a great deal of misery for many working people."
Usdaw’s ‘Time for Better Pay’ campaign calls for:
- A minimum wage rate of at least £10 per hour for all workers.
- Minimum contracts of 16 hours per week for everyone who wants one.
- Contracts based on an individual’s normal hours of work.
- An end to zero-hours contracts.
- Ending the roll out of Universal Credit.
For more information:
www.usdaw.org.uk/T4BP
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 410,000 members. Membership has increased by more than one-third over the last couple of decades. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter
@UsdawUnion