A CONSERVATIVE councillor in Clacks has suggested that a much-maligned cut to Universal Credit should be delayed if families are shown to be worse off now than they were before the coronavirus pandemic.

Cllr Denis Coyne, who was elected to Clackmannanshire East last November, said it "may…be necessary" to suspend the planned £20-per-week reduction in the benefit in a month's time if there is evidence to suggest families are unable to stay afloat without it.

Speaking on Monday this week, Cllr Coyne said his view on Universal Credit was not set in stone.

He added: "I firmly believe that no one should be in a position where, through circumstances beyond their control, they cannot satisfactorily house, feed, clothe, and rear their children in a dignified manner, with enough on top to provide recreational and vacational experiences as well.

"If analysis shows that the financial position of those on Universal Credit does not allow them to raise their families as described above, then the proper thing to do is to fully and quickly review the UC system parameters and fix them where they are failing to provide adequate assistance to those who need it most.

"It may be the case that extending the date for the removal of the £20 uplift will be necessary if the financial position of those in receipt of UC can be shown to be worse now than before the pandemic."

The £20 uplift in Universal Credit payments was introduced at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

UK ministers intended to keep the boost for a year, but it had been extended as the public health crisis dragged on.

Research has suggested the uplift kept 700,000 UK families out of poverty during the Covid era, and some Conservative MPs have supported making it permanent.

In Clackmannanshire, the number of people on Universal Credit has increased by 50 per cent since March 2020, and the number of people in work while also claiming the benefit has increased by a fifth.

Between 2015 and 2020, the number of children in poverty in the Wee County has also risen, from 24.2 per cent to 27.3 per cent.

However, Cllr Coyne added that the £20 uplift was never designed to be permanent.

"The £20 uplift was one of a number of temporary measures used by the chancellor to alleviate the burden of additional financial pressure resulting from the pandemic," he said, comparing it to the furlough scheme and the various business grants provided to keep companies afloat.

"All of these measures were temporary and all must eventually come to an end when it is judged that those financial pressures have been lifted or, at least, greatly mitigated.

"If I give money to a man to enable him to rent an umbrella while it is raining, it makes no sense to continue to pay him when the rain stops."

Cllr Dave Clark, Labour group leader, branded the cut "shameful" at a committee meeting last week as he challenged Cllr Coyne to condemn it.

Responding to the Conservative's latest comments, Cllr Clark said today: "The Conservatives are ruthless in their oppression of the poor.

"They fail to discuss the 'nanny state' when public money rightly subsidises businesses during coronavirus to keep them afloat, yet they accelerate as fast as they can to do violence to the poorest in our communities.

"According to Child Poverty Action Group figures this will drag a further 220 children into poverty in our area.

"We currently have 27 per cent of our children living in poverty here in Clackmannanshire, a good number of them with working parents.

"This means children will go to school without breakfast. This will mean that children will not have warm clothes in winter and their families will be unable to heat their houses. It is straight out of Charles Dickens.

"The same people that sent children up chimneys in Victorian times are alive in Clackmannanshire and still lack any emotional intelligence whatsoever of the consequences of their actions.

"Furthermore, our experiences as a local authority confirm research elsewhere and we find it impacts on Housing Debt and Council Tax Debt.

"As a Christian man it just makes me so sad watching what the Tories are doing to our children."

A report published last week by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggested that almost a third of families with children claiming Universal Credit in Clackmannanshire would lose out under the £20 cut. The think tank says the reduction will be "the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since the Second World War."

Responding to the JRF report, a spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "The temporary uplift to Universal Credit was designed to help claimants through the economic shock and financial disruption of the toughest stages of the pandemic, and it has done so."