Gordon Brown has called on the government to carry out a “root and branch” review of Universal Credit amid growing poverty in the UK.
The former Labour prime minister told Sky News he was seeing a level of poverty “I never thought I would see in my lifetime again”, and it was the government’s “duty” to tackle it for people across the country.
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Speaking to Kay Burley, he said: “I grew up in a mining town, which is a textile town producing linoleum, with lots of slum housing, lots of real problems. And I thought that kind of poverty had gone.
“But it’s back now and you’ve got a million children last night who were not sleeping in a bed of their own… two million families that don’t have cookers and washing machines, and they can’t actually fend for the children the way they want to do.
“Kids are not cleaning their teeth because they can’t afford the toothpaste. And the soap is not being bought because it falls off the end of the off the shop when you have to buy the food and the food is costing more.”
Mr Brown, who is involved in creating so-called “multi-banks” – similar to foodbanks, but also offering bedding, furniture and hygiene products – said 2024 would be “a bigger test for us” than previous years to help those in need, adding: “I think we’ve got to do far more.”
‘Far more children in poverty’
Asked by Kay Burley if the increase in poverty was down to the political choices of the current Conservative government, the former prime minister said: “Well, undoubtedly, Universal Credit needs to be looked at. I mean, it’s not working.
“The truth is that there are so many aspects of it that are problematical that there needs to be root and branch review of Universal Credit.
“The single person’s Universal Credit [payment] is a lower share of average earnings than at any point since the social security system started.
“So the government has got a responsibility and we’ve got to look at it.”
He added: “I am really worried about the state of poverty in Britain at the moment. And I really want people to focus on it because you don’t hear any government minister ever talking about poverty or about Universal Credit and how it needs to be reformed.
“It’s their duty to do something about it because in their midst and under their watch, far more children – more than four million children in this country – are in poverty.”
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‘They just can’t afford to keep their children’
Mr Brown also appealed for more businesses, big and small, to get involved in multi-banks, joining the likes of Amazon in providing goods for those in need.
Talking about a centre a charity runs in Wigan, he said: “On the first day it started, a father came in with his six-year-old son and said, ‘I can no longer afford to keep him’ and walked out. And the son was in absolute floods of tears – he was being deserted by his own father.
“And this is something that is going on at the moment.”
Mr Brown said that “neglect or domestic violence” were often not the reasons families are putting children into care in these circumstances.
“It’s because they just can’t afford to keep the children,” he added.
“And that’s something that we really should do something about because the cost of keeping a child in care is so high, but also it’s so unfair that that kid was being deserted by his father simply because his father didn’t have enough money.”
Sky News has contacted the Department for Work and Pensions for a response.
