£20 More for All Benefits: Day of Action

We join the 2nd UK Day of Action called by Disabled People Against Cuts to demand that the £20 increase to Universal Credit introduced at the start of the pandemic be made permanent and extended to other benefits.

That the increase did not apply to legacy benefits demonstrates how the hostile environment the DWP has created for disabled claimants has not been mitigated, despite the ‘solidarity’ posturing all governments are adopting in pandemic times. We therefore call for the UK government to #KeepTheLifeline and #IncreaseDisabilityBenefits.

We also demand that the £20 per week increase is retained, and increased.

Out of work benefits are not enough to live on: (post) pandemic times of mass unemployment have made this impossible to ignore, and forced more of us to appreciate it first hand. Our demand for the £20 per week increase to stay and be extended is also a call for claimants to join, or form, claimants’ solidarity groups to fight for dignity and a safety net for all those who need it.

Direct Action Struggle

It is no good relying on politicians; rather we look to grass-roots organising from below, building a practical solidarity which can resist benefit cuts, harassment and sanctions, and forms of mutual aid which accompany direct action struggle. In a world of potential plenty, capitalism is robbing the poor to enrich the wealthy, and the profit machine threatens human existence through climate change.

Increasing calls for Universal Basic Income show a growing recognition that good food, housing, heating, and more should be human rights, but we believe more is needed – revolutionary change to take the world’s resources into communal control and enable “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.”