Universal credit claimants are suffering a loss of income they can ill afford with the cancellation of the Covid uplift.

The Conservative government's decision is plunging thousands of local people into poverty, leaving them unable to pay rent or put dinner on the table, and facing debt and eviction as a result.

Statistics that I have been provided show that 12,700 households and £13.3 million has been taken away from people in my Leyton and Wanstead constituency.

Ilford Recorder: Many of John Cryer's constituents feel they 'have been taken for mugs' over Dominic Cummings' trip.Many of John Cryer's constituents feel they 'have been taken for mugs' over Dominic Cummings' trip. (Image: Archant)

For working claimants in Redbridge this is a double blow, coming at a time when income among the low paid is taking a hit as a result of the government's national insurance increase, which is an attempt to fill a hole in our creaking social care system but which will almost certainly be taken up by the void left in the NHS created by a decade of cuts.

For some self-employed claimants this is a triple blow as it comes alongside the reinstatement of the minimum income floor, which had also been suspended due to the pandemic.

This is the minimum level of earnings that the department for work and pensions assume a self-employed person earns when calculating their benefit - even if their income drops beneath it.

I think it is clear who the government intend to pay for the large scale spending it was forced into by the pandemic - and it isn't their wealthy donors.