BASW General Election Blog: Uprate benefits each year in line with inflation

BASW has set out 40 priorities for the next UK Government that we’ll be highlighted to all political parties ahead of the General Election. Our blog series takes a deeper look at each of the policy asks in turn.
Manifesto UK

Uprate benefits each year in line with inflation

Each year, benefits are uprated but the level by which they are increased is subject to the UK Government. They are usually uprated in April by the inflation rate for the previous September, but it is not guaranteed.

As the cost of living has rapidly risen in recent years, the importance of ensuring that the value of benefits keeps pace with inflation has become more critical. Anything less is equal to a real-terms cut in income, making the cost of everyday essentials - such as food, heating, clothes, rent – less affordable. Furthermore, the government not providing a cast iron guarantee each year to meet the inflation target for uprating creates unwelcome uncertainty for those on low, often fixed incomes, causing them greater financial anxiety and stress. 

The impact of going without basic needs is catastrophic. Individuals and families are forced into unthinkable decisions about what they can realistically afford in order to get by, leading to spiralling debts or cutting back on necessities. Hunger, poor nutrition, cold and damp homes, rent arrears, fewer opportunities to do things you enjoy, all have a knock-on effect in many other areas of people’s lives; jeopardising health outcomes, wellbeing, social connections, learning and work prospects and people’s safety. While mounting debts only compound problems further and longer term.

Levels of destitution across the UK are already at a worrying high. Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that 3.8million people in the UK experienced destitution in 2022, including one million children. This is almost two-thirds higher than in 2017, and triple the number of children. Consequently, child poverty continues to rise around the country, with latest figures showing 4.3million children now growing up in poverty.

Up to 2023, the UK Government held the value of benefits below inflation in nine of the previous thirteen years, freezing in-work support and benefits and therefore eroding income levels for those affected year upon year. In 2022 alone, the value of the basic rate of unemployment benefits had its sharpest fall in fifty years. Moreover, these real-term cuts are happening on a backdrop of a sustained period of austerity.

Increasing poverty alone is already putting unimaginable pressure on social work services. Our 2023 annual survey revealed that 51% of social workers reported that the number of people they were supporting had increased due to the cost-of-living crisis, while 30% labelled it as the one of the biggest challenges facing the profession now and in the immediate future. 

We need the next UK Government to commit to uprating benefits in line with inflation, as a bare minimum, every year. This policy alone won’t address the shocking poverty levels that exist across the UK just now (other policies in our manifesto such as repealing the two-child limit and benefit cap are needed to lift people out of poverty), but it is a vital component for minimising the risk of those on the lowest incomes from being plunged below the breadline.

However, even after this minimum uprating, the basic rate of Universal Credit is still not high enough. That is why we also support calls from anti-poverty campaign groups for the next UK Government to enshrine in UK law an 'Essentials Guarantee' to ensure that everyone has a protected minimum amount of support to afford basic essentials. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has a briefing on this policy explaining how it would work.