GORDON Brown has led calls for the Chancellor not to increase national insurance contributions as part of a package of measures to keep families out of "extreme poverty" as a result of the cost of living crisis.
Along with Labour leaders of councils, metro mayors and the First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford, the former Prime Minister has written to Rishi Sunak.
The group called for the national insurance rise - due to be introduced in April - to be scrapped, as well as the restoration of the £20 uplift to Universal Credit and the uprating of benefits in line with the current rate of inflation.
Extra help, the letter said, should also be offered to those struggling most to help heat their homes, including increased funding for insulation as part of a longer term programme of retrofitting.
"April 2022 brings us the worst cost of living crisis for half a century," the letter said.
Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown
"Six million low income families have already lost £20 a week because of the cut in Universal credit in October.
"Further cuts in the value of their incomes, as heating bills surge and food bills soar, will deepen the cost of living crisis millions face.
"They are unfair and for millions will be unbearable, pushing them over the edge into extreme poverty and unable to afford to heat their homes or provide the nutrition their children need.
"Families and communities in every part of the United Kingdom face a heavy price of severe hardship, and each of us is deeply concerned about the damage that will be done to the cohesion of our whole country.
"In response, a group of us including the First Minister of Wales, metro mayors, and local authority leaders have come together from all parts of the country to make a special and unprecedented plea to the Chancellor."
The leaders urged Mr Sunak to unveil the measures during his statement to Parliament next week.
"We are already seeing the impact of rising poverty in all our areas. Nothing less than these four measures, introduced simultaneously on March 23, can prevent fuel poverty hitting millions more in our country, and stop poverty as a whole rising faster than at any time in recent history," they wrote.
"At stake is unacceptable and avoidable suffering for millions of our fellow citizens - and especially for millions of children - across our communities."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel