The chancellor used his budget to make a very welcome announcement: further investment into Universal Credit.

Work remains the best route out of poverty and the extensive welfare reforms since 2010, of which Universal Credit is a vital part, have been the key drivers of the UK’s jobs miracle, resulting in four million more people in employment.

The two new measures announced to help Universal Credit claimants include; £1billion committed over five years to fund top-up payments for those migrated onto Universal Credit from other benefits, and the investment of an additional £1.7billion per year to benefit working families on Universal Credit by increasing the work allowance – this is the money families can earn before losing benefits – by £1,000, worth £630 per year to around 2.4 million families and households.

The implementation of Universal Credit to help people back to work, is an enormous undertaking and I have been urging the government to direct money back into Universal Credit exactly as the system was originally planned.

The government has already put £2bn of the money that was taken out back in and you saw changes this time last year which helped enormously.

The announcement that more cash is going back into the funding of Universal Credit is absolutely right and fair especially for those on or moving onto Universal Credit.

This will benefit 2.4 million working families with children and people with disabilities.

All in all this cash boost now amounts to an increase of £6.6billion over five years, however, I will continue at every opportunity to urge the government to invest more.