The Covid-19 pandemic is the greatest crisis the welfare state has faced since its postwar creation. Over the past year, job losses and wage cuts have forced three million more people in the UK to claim Universal Credit. After a decade of austerity, the necessity of a resilient social safety net has been demonstrated during this period of national emergency.
In recognition of this, the government increased Universal Credit payments by £20 a week at the outset of the crisis last March. This move helped protect basic living standards and support economic demand. It was also long overdue: unemployment benefits were previously worth no more than in the early 1990s, despite the economy having grown by 75 per cent since then.
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