Boris Johnson has sparked fury by refusing to cancel a £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit.

The Prime Minister is currently planning to slash the monthly benefits allowance by £85.05 on April 12.

That will hit 5.7 million families - 39% of whom already have a job - and plunge thousands into poverty.

Today ministers stuck to their guns, insisting Universal Credit was only ever meant to be raised "temporarily".

While the PM might change his mind; for now he’s ordering Tory MPs not to push the issue in Parliament.

They’ve been told to sit out a vote tomorrow night by Labour, who are calling for the current rate to stay.

Reports suggest the Tories want to offer a £500 one-off payment to families on Universal Credit instead.

But Labour and experts blasted the “terrible” idea because it still wouldn’t make up the difference - and thousands of families would miss out on the one-off help.

So what is the issue all about, and how will a cut affect you or the people you love?

Here’s everything you need to know, compiled by The Mirror.

Will Universal Credit be cut in April?

We don’t know for sure - but currently, that’s the plan.

Universal Credit was raised by £1,040 for the 2020/21 financial year to help with the impact of coronavirus.

As it stands, that “temporary” rise will end on April 12, and the benefit will be knocked back down.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to spell out any extension, or new rise, in his Budget on March 3.

How much would my Universal Credit be cut?

The 5.7million people on Universal Credit would lose up to £85 or so a month each

The monthly “standard allowance” is due to be cut by roughly £85 for all types of claimants.

This allowance is the basic amount of Universal Credit you get per month before any add-ons or deductions.

So for example, you get an extra £237.08 per month for each child up to a limit of two - that’s an add-on.

But if you do any paid work, or owe the DWP advance repayments or other debt, your payment gets deducted.

So we can’t say exactly how much your payment will change. But for most people, it’ll be around £85 a month.

  • For single people over 25, the standard allowance is due to be cut by £85.05 from £409.89 to £324.84.
  • For couples where at least one person is over 25, it would be cut by £84.31 from £594.04 to £509.91.
  • For single people under 25, the standard allowance is due to be cut by £85.39 from £342.72 to £257.33.
  • For couples where at both people are under 25, it would be cut by £84.66 from £488.59 to £403.93.

Note, Universal Credit won’t return to exactly what it was in March 2020. It would be higher - but only by a very small amount.

Why are the Tories trying to cut Universal Credit?

Rishi Sunak

Chancellor Rishi Sunak doesn’t want to hand over the cash because of how government spending works.

When Universal Credit was raised in April 2020, it was “temporary” so recorded differently on the accounts.

If he’s forced to make the current rate permanent, it will “bake in” £6bn a more of annual spending for good. That has to be paid for with tax rises, cuts or borrowing elsewhere.

Why should they not cut Universal Credit?

Job Centre Plus
Job Centre Plus

To save thousands more hard-up families from plunging into poverty in the middle of a pandemic.

Universal Credit was born at the same time as Tory welfare cuts and critics say it has never paid well enough.

Some claimants complained they had to survive off food banks even when everything 'went right'.

In the eyes of critics, the £20 boost last year finally solved many of those problems about the base rate.

There are other reasons too. Around half of those on Universal Credit were never on it before coronavirus.

That means if it is cut by £20 a week, they’ll feel the shock for the first time. They never knew the lower rate.

Then there’s the fact we’re in the middle of a pandemic on which the government has spent more than £220bn. Test and Trace has cost £22bn, more than three years’ worth of the Universal Credit rise. It’s about priorities.

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told Sky News: “When was the last government to cut out of work benefits in a major economic downturn?

“I think you have to go back to the Great Depression and the national government to find that. There is a reason this never happens - it is not in the national interest.”

What are the Tories suggesting instead?

The Treasury has drawn up a plan to cut Universal Credit, but give claimants a one-off £500 “gift”.

That would supposedly soften the blow of the benefit falling in April, but Labour branded it a “terrible policy”.

The Resolution Foundation pointed out two main problems - firstly, Universal Credit would still fall overall.

Secondly, anyone who happened not to be on UC at the cut-off date wouldn’t get the cash.

Chief Executive Torsten Bell said: "This plan would mean the level of our basic unemployment benefit would be cut to its lowest level since 1992.

"That’s madness, particularly at exactly the point at which unemployment is set to rise."

A government source insisted this was just one out of "loads" of options and nothing had been decided yet.

What if I’m on other benefits?

The DWP Universal Credit application form
The DWP Universal Credit application form

Working Tax Credit also got raised by £20 a week last April so that would fall too.

However, the other 'legacy' benefits which Universal Credit has replaced were not raised by £20 last April.

That means they won't fall, but only because they're well below UC already. To add insult to injury, this year they are due to rise by just 0.5% - or 35p for many people.

That includes more than a million people on disability and sickness benefit ESA.

More than 100 charities have blasted ministers over this “two-tier” welfare state but they refuse to budge.

Boris Johnson claimed people should just move to UC, but many disabled ESA claimants aren’t allowed to.

What is the showdown vote all about?

Labour is forcing a showdown vote in the House of Commons on Monday evening.

MPs will be asked to vote on a motion that reads: “The Government should stop the planned cut in Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit in April and give certainty today to the six million families for whom it is worth an extra £1,000 a year.”

This will not be binding. That means when it passes - and it will (see below) - it has no legal effect on the government.

But it would expose splits in Tory ranks and urge the government to do the right thing.

How will Tory MPs vote - and why?

Boris Johnson has ordered Tory MPs to abstain on the opposition day motion.

That means it will pass, without Conservative MPs voting for or against it.

The Prime Minister told Tory MPs he took the decision because the debate is “legislatively vacuous” and won’t actually make a difference if it passes.

He added it was to stop abuse on Twitter of Tory MPs for supposedly ‘voting for a benefit cut’, which happened when Labour held a similar motion about free school meals.

But whatever his excuses, you suspect the real reason is to quell a rebellion on his own benches. Some Tory MPs are very unhappy and want Universal Credit to stay at its current level beyond January.

Will there be a revolt?

Sir Keir Starmer

It seems possible some Tory MPs could vote for Labour's motion but we don't know how many.

Around 50 Conservatives in the Northern Research Group want Boris Johnson to extend the £20 for another year.

And former Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb is among Tories who’ve urged the PM not to cut UC.

He said: “Now is really not the moment to weaken our welfare safety net. Giving families on low incomes greater security for the year ahead by extending, rather than cutting support, is the right thing to do.”

Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he’d spoken to Tory MPs and had some “productive conversations”.

What has Boris Johnson said?

Boris Johnson has hinted he will go ahead with the cut, telling MPs he’d "rather see a focus on jobs and a growth in wages than focusing on welfare".

That makes no sense because 39% of the 5.7million people on Universal Credit are in employment already.

The Prime Minister has also accused Labour of “playing politics” and “misrepresenting” Opposition Day votes.

In a bizarre message to Tory MPs, he appeared to compare Labour activists to the Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol leaving five dead.

He claimed Labour was “inciting the worst kind of hatred and bullying (of a kind seen sadly across the Atlantic)”.

And he threatened to “think again” about the status of Opposition Day debates in future.

For all his heavy talk, what he hasn’t said is whether he’ll help hungry families on UC this April.