Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to hit families in Birmingham Ladywood with a triple blow of council tax hikes, frozen pay and cuts to social security at his Budget this week.  With Britain in the grip of the worst economic crisis of any major economy, Shabana Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, is urging the Chancellor to change course to protect family finances and get Britain on the road to recovery.

The Chancellor’s plan to slash Universal Credit by £20 a week from April means 25,490 people in Birmingham Ladywood will take a £1040 a year hit to their finances.  Sunak also wants families to pay for gaps in council budgets through council tax hikes rather than fulfilling his pledge to back them.  This could amount to £88 extra on annual council tax bills for the average Band D home in Birmingham.

The Chancellor is also hitting 1,800 key workers earning over £18,000 in Birmingham Ladywood with a real term pay cut this year, affecting the teachers, police officers and Armed Forces personnel on the front line of the pandemic.

These dangerous proposals come less than fortnight after figures showed a devastating spike in unemployment in Birmingham Ladywood.

Shabana Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, said:

“With Britain in the grip of the worst economic crisis of any major economy, the Chancellor’s plans to implement a triple hammer blow of cuts to Universal Credit, council tax hikes and pay freezes are economically illiterate, and risk destroying Birmingham’s recovery before it has even begun.

“Families in Birmingham Ladywood have already gone through so much this past year.  It is the Government’s duty to do what it can to support those who have struggled, not strip away protections so they can give more money to private contracts.

“This is a crucial moment to rebuild the foundations of the economy, with a relentless focus needed on creating and protecting jobs, delivering growth on our high streets and protecting family finances.  The Chancellor must reconsider his plans.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Pay Freeze:

• The Resolution Foundation have calculated that 2.6m public sector workers will be subject to the pay freeze, with 2.9m exempt. This implies that 47% of all public sector workers will be affected by the freeze.

https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releases/public-sector-workers-affected-by-the-pay-freeze-next-year-already-face-a-pay-penalty-compared-to-private-sector-staff-in-similar-roles/

• Constituency-level data on the public sector workforce sourced from the Annual Population Survey via Nomis tells us the overall number of public sector workers in each constituency. This figure has been adjusted in line with the Resolution Foundation estimate that 47% of public sector workers are affected nationally.

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/

 Council Tax:

• The Centre for Progressive Policy has also produced local authority by local authority estimates for what Band D council tax would be under the maximum increase.

https://www.progressive-policy.net/downloads/files/Potential-council-tax-increases-datasheet.xlsx

Universal Credit:

• The House of Commons Library produce figures on the number of people claiming Universal Credit by constituency

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-data-universal-credit-roll-out/