On 19 March, I joined colleagues in writing to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak MP, to call upon him to announce an ambitious economic package to support the poorest in our society. The letter led by Emma Lewell-Buck MP calls on the following emergency measures, to guarantee an adequate minimum level of support for people moving onto Universal Credit:

1. Replace advanced payments with a targetted grant
2. Write off tax credit debt that is more than three years old
3. Offer claimants a choice of fortnightly or monthly payments
4. Introduce greater flexibility to the recovery of existing over-payments and advance payments, for example, by bringing forward the measures announced in the budget which aren’t currently due to take place for another 18 months, to lower the rate of deductions and extend repayment periods to two years.