27 May 2024 , 19:00
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Rishi Sunak has been ordered to publish secret documents showing the impact of his cut to Universal Credit.
As Chancellor, the PM ignored pleas from campaigners including footballer Marcus Rashford by scrapping the £20-per-week uplift introduced during the pandemic.
The government has refused to release an analysis examining the impact of not extending the support. But in a victory for the Mirror, the Information Commissioners' Office (ICO) has now ordered the Treasury to disclose the details.
The support - worth around £1,000 a year - was introduced in March 2020 as a temporary measure to help the most vulnerable families through the Covid crisis.
But it came to end in October 2021 - despite warnings removing the "lifeline" in support could plunge 800,000 people into poverty. Labour leader Keir Starmer also warned the Government would be "turning on the poorest" and six ex-Tory Work and Pensions Secretaries - including ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith - even wrote to Mr Sunak urging him to make the increase in Universal Credit permanent.
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At the time one Whitehall official claimed an internal government analysis showed cutting the support would be "catastrophic".
Last summer the Treasury refused to release any analysis of ending the support when requested by the Mirror. They argued it would "not be in the public interest due to the harm it would cause to policy development and delivering for welfare benefit claimants".
But in a decision notice - sent to The Mirror just hours before the General Election was called - the ICO ordered the Treasury to publish the information "within 30 calendar days". It means the Government has until June 21 to publish the details - just two weeks before the country heads to the polls.
Lib Dem Work and Pensions spokeswoman Wendy Chamberlain told The Mirror: "This is a shocking cover up and proof Conservative Ministers are hiding the truth from the public.
“Conservative Ministers should come clean about this damaging decision. There are also questions to be answered about the refusal to give the uplift to those on legacy benefits. This information has to be published before the country goes to the polls."
In its judgement, the ICO said: "The Commissioner has concluded, that the public interest favours disclosure of the request information. In reaching this view, the Commissioner has given particular weight to the fact that the policy to which the statistics relate is no longer live.
"He has also given weight to the fact that the policy was one which was developed in the unique circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a strong public interest in knowing as much as possible about what information the government was considering in that unprecedented and challenging period."
During the investigation, the Treasury told the ICO it did not conduct "a formal impact assessement relating to the conclusion of this temporary policy". But they admitted information was held "that details our analysis on the impacts of further extensions, which can be used to show the impact of not extending the uplift".
They added: "The uplift was initally put in place temporarily between April 2020 and March 2021. In March 2021, the Chancellor of the Exhequer announced it would be extended for a further 6 months. This policy was always designed as temporary so the information in scope relates to analysis completed prior to the 6-month extension".
The Treasury declined to comment due to the pre-election period.
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