Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has launched a new series of ‘Mind the Gaps’ briefings to report on families’ incomes during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The briefings highlight some of the gaps in support that exist for children and families affected by the Covid-19 crisis using evidence from CPAG’s Early Warning System (EWS) which collects case studies from frontline practitioners working directly with families on the problems they are seeing with the social security system.
It is important to note that these briefings are not designed to capture everything; instead they will feature different issues each week and return to issues that need urgent attention where necessary.
The first briefing looks at groups that are excluded from claiming universal credit (UC) which include:
a) students who have lost their jobs, but who are not eligible to claim UC because they do not have
disabilities or children;
b) couples where one person has lost their job and their partner has their own income or savings;
c) those with no recourse to public funds;
d) EU nationals that do not have a right to reside and therefore cannot claim means tested benefits;
e) those who are stuck in the UK or abroad.
Read the first CPAG Mind the Gaps briefing here.