Trussell Trust’s Guarantee Our Essential Campaign
Trussell Trust are currently running a campaign, Guarantee our Essentials, in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), calling on the UK government to enshrine in law the amount people need to ensure the basic rate of Universal Credit at least covers the essentials.
Universal Credit should offer support to anyone in need of help. But there’s now a significant gap between living costs and the income Universal Credit provides, according to both Trussell Trust’s and JRF’s calculations. Rates are also not based on what people need and how much essentials such as food, household bills and travel cost, which is driving increasing levels of hardship and pushing people to food banks, with 90% of low-income households on Universal Credit going without.
More and more people agree this is unacceptable
New research reveals 66% of people think the basic rate of Universal Credit is too low, as well as 67% saying they didn’t think they’d be able to afford the essentials if they were on Universal Credit.
With almost three quarters of the general public supportive of the Essentials Guarantee, and more and more people being left with no option but to use a food bank, it’s time for the UK government to guarantee our essentials.
Get involved
We can’t always deal with what life throws at us on our own, so we need to have a system that supports us all to afford the essentials if we face hard times.
To see what you can do to help, visit https://www.trusselltrust.org/get-involved/campaigns/guarantee-our-essentials/