The Guarantee Our Essentials Campaign

Reforming Universal Credit to ensure we can all afford the essentials in hard times

Helping people to manage their money well is important and something Exeter Foodbank is increasingly trying to do through our collaborative work. However, if you’re on an inadequate income, budgeting only goes so far. Sometimes, nothing can make the sums add up.

This is the reality faced by the majority of people who turn to foodbanks for help. When unexpected circumstances strike – losing a job, falling ill, having to care for a sick family member, breaking up with a partner – most people expect that social security will support them with essentials. And it’s reasonable to assume that this support is based on some objective calculation of how much things cost. However, this just isn’t the case. Today’s benefit levels are simply the product of successive rate changes, inflation, and political assessments of affordability, without any external reference to what people actually need.

As a result, there is a significant shortfall between many people’s living costs and their incomes. Foodbanks should not have to plug this gap.

(c1).

Analysis suggests that the minimum amount a single adult needs is £120 per week to cover essential costs (excluding housing and council tax).
The Universal Credit (UC) standard allowance for a single adult over 25 years is £85. Moreover, almost half of households see their UC payments reduced further due to deductions or caps. (c3).

Research by the Trusell Trust & Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has found that:

1. 90% of low-income households on UC are currently going without essentials, such as food, a warm home, functioning essential appliances, or toiletries. (c1)
2. Support has eroded over decades and the basic rate (‘standard allowance’) of UC is now at its lowest ever level as a proportion of average earnings. (c1)
3. 66% of the public think the basic rate of UC is too low. (c2)

Without an adequate safety net, an individual’s temporary setback can quickly lead to spiraling debt, and deteriorating mental and physical health. In turn, these pressures reduce people’s capacity to ‘bounce-back’, placing greater pressures on social security, the NHS and other support services. Short-term savings in the benefits system often come at significant long-term, avoidable cost to the individual, to the wider economy, and to society as a whole

What is being done?

The Trussell Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and supporters are calling on the UK government to make sure that the basic rate of Universal Credit is at least enough to afford the essentials we all need. This policy would enshrine in legislation:

1. An independent process to regularly determine the Essentials Guarantee level, based on the cost of essentials (such as food, utilities and vital household goods) for the adults in a household (excluding rent and council tax);
2. That Universal Credit’s standard allowance must at least meet this level; and
3. That deductions (such as debt repayments to government) can never pull support below this level.

Such a policy would directly address material hardship by embedding a protected, minimum level of support based on an objective assessment of essential costs. It would alleviate in-work poverty for those receiving UC, without altering existing financial incentives to work. And it would directly benefit 8.8 million low-income families, including 3.9 million families with children, by ensuring no one has to go without essentials to make ends meet. (c1)

How can you help?

Please take action now and join our Guarantee the Essentials Campaign. Together we can send a clear message to all MPs that the basic rate of Universal Credit must at least be enough to afford the essentials we all need to get by.

Find Out More:

Sign the Trussell Trust Petition here. Fill in one of Exeter Foodbank’s ‘Guarantee the Essentials’ postcards (available at our central distribution point at the Mint Methodist Centre and Exeter Central Library). The foodbank will deliver them to our MP on your behalf. Read the full report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation here.

Thank you for your support

Citations:

1. Joseph Rowntree Foundation; The Trussell Trust (2023). An Essentials Guarantee: Reforming Universal Credit to ensure we can all afford the essentials in hard times.
2. https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/guarantee-our-essentials Polling carried out by the YDS on behalf of Thinks Insight and Strategy for JRF (2022).
3. Trussell Trust (2022). Debt to Government, deductions and destitution.