WORKING Brits on Universal Credit should be able to keep more of their hard-earned cash, Tom Tugendhat has vowed.
The wannabe-PM wants to rip up benefits rules again to help with the cost of living crisis – in a win for our Sun campaign.
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Six Tories are currently battling it out among each other to make it into the final round to become the next PM.
MPs are voting again today, with the final two expected next week, before going to the Tory members for a vote.
And if he becomes PM, Mr Tugendhat wants a radical shake up of the Universal Credit rates.
He would make Universal Credit more generous by cutting the taper rate – which taxes workers on how much they can earn – he suggested today.
At the moment, people who are on benefits and earn over their work allowance are taxed harshly, reducing their take-home pay.
Rishi Sunak slashed the taper rate by 8p in the pound in a mega win for The Sun’s Make Universal Credit Work campaign – meaning 2million could keep an extra £1,000 a year.
Speaking to reporters in Westminster, he said the taper rate was “not where it should be”.
He added: “You can’t encourage work with the marginal rate of taxation running higher than 67 per cent – it juts becomes absurd.
“When you factor in the costs of going to work, of fuel, you’re actually paying to work, and that doesn’t work for anybody.
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“It’s bad for society, all these unfilled jobs that we have now, are costing all of us.
“The area I would look at is the Universal Credit taper rate, and look to make that much better.”
It comes as the first cost of living payments hit bank accounts today.
Brits on low incomes will get £326 from today – with another lump sum due in the coming months.
Pensioners and disabled Brits will also get an extra cash cheque to help with energy bills and rising costs.
Every household in the UK will be given at least £400 to help cover spiralling energy bills, which are set to rise by hundreds of pounds more this winter.
