10 signatures reached
To: MP for Cambridge and Minister for Food Security Daniel Zeichner
Guarantee Our Essentials: change Universal Credit so we can all afford essentials in hard times
Dear Daniel Zeichner, our local MP for Cambridge and Minister for Food Security:
I urgently ask you to support the ‘Guarantee our Essentials’ campaign by writing to the Chancellor Rachel Reeves calling for new legislation that would ensure Universal Credit payments guarantee that I can afford the cost of essentials if I fall on hard times.
This would be through a new basic rate that would cover the cost of food, electricity and gas, water, clothing, toiletries, other vital household goods, communications and travel (but excluding rent and council tax). The current standard allowance of £91 a week means single adults are falling short by at least £29 to afford the cost of these basic essentials and £57 for a couple on the weekly £143 standard allowance.
I am therefore calling for this new basic rate to be at least £120 a week for a single adult and £200 a week for a couple. This follows current cost of living estimates by Trussell and ONS household spending data. I ask that this new basic rate is set at least annually by the UK Government and based on the recommendation of an independent process to ensure payment levels match the cost of living. There would also be a guarantee that any debt deductions (currently averaging £62 a month) do not allow my payments to fall below this level.
By championing this campaign in parliament, you will show thousands of your constituents who rely on food banks, live day to day and cry out for change that you are with us. We’ll do our bit as a community to support each other. We’re hoping you’ll do yours.
Why is this important?
More and more people in our society are being left with no option but to turn to a food bank to feed themselves or their family. From 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024, Cambridge City Foodbank alone issued a record high 17,500 3-day emergency food parcels. Behind the 171 tonnes of parcels given out are thousands of stories. Some spoken. Others not.
Redundancy, in-work poverty, caring for a sick family member, relationship breakdown, arthritis. People who never thought they would have to use a food bank. Stories of hunger we are hearing more of in Cambridge that come from people claiming Universal Credit. People in acute crisis. Living day to day. Counting the pennies and making items stretch as far as they can. Many feel ashamed and judged for having to rely on welfare and yet are still not able to afford the essentials. If this was you, how would you feel? If this is you, why suffer in silence?
Most people would expect the levels of support offered by our social security system, if we face hard times, to cover the essentials; to cover the fundamentals for healthy living. But it doesn’t. We are calling on the UK Government to take urgent action and provide immediate relief for people facing hunger. By ensuring a new basic rate, some 8.8 million low-income families would benefit, including 3.9 million families with children and over half of all working-age families in the UK with a disabled family member.
By signing this petition, we send a strong signal to our local MP Daniel Zeichner that the people of Cambridge support these long overdue changes to Universal Credit to ensure we can all afford the essentials in hard times. We also show that as a city we support each other’s wellbeing and dignity, united and as a community. Let’s make change happen and end the need for food banks. Sign today and make it count.
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To get involved with the campaign group, please send an email to: [email protected]
