Toothpaste, nappies and toilet rolls are becoming “luxury goods” for many families because they are being pushed into destitution by the Government, Gordon Brown has warned.
The Labour former PM today issues an urgent plea to Tory ministers to pause “insidious” and “vindictive” deductions from people’s benefits.
Two million Universal Credit claimants have up to a quarter of their monthly payments taken by the government to repay debts.
Mr Brown wants these deductions, which average around £60 a month, to be suspended until energy prices have fallen.
He said this would not create a “huge cost” to the government, but would be a “lifesaver for those in need this Christmas”.
Writing in the Mirror, he argued it was “vindictive beyond even austerity” for “shameful” ministers to keep taking money out of people’s benefits as they struggle to pay their soaring gas and electricity bills.
“It's causing untold misery,” he said. “This hardship means when anything breaks down - like a cooker, fridge or TV - it cannot be repaired because the call-out and repair costs are too high. It means too that beds, bedding and carpets can never be afforded - and homes fall into disrepair.
“It means that toothpaste, soap, nappies and even toilet rolls are becoming luxury goods.”
Mr Brown said food banks and charities have “now become the last line of defence against destitution”.
But he added: “Just as breadwinners cannot afford bread, food banks are running out of food.
“Charities are now as overstretched as the people they are helping. Donors who have little, who have given to people who have nothing, have now no more to give.
“And soon charities will be so hard-pressed, they will give up on feeding the hungry to focus on the starving.”
The former PM said he was also worried that “desperate mothers will have to turn to loan sharks charging exorbitant interest rates”.
Single people over 25 get a Universal Credit standard allowance of £334.91-a-month, plus top-ups for housing, children and disability.
But up to 25% of this standard allowance can be siphoned off by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) each month to repay debts.
Almost half of deductions were to pay back advances, issued to cover the five-week wait for people’s first Universal Credit payment.
One fifth were to pay back Tax Credits which the government overpaid people in the past, and refuses to write off.
Deductions for the 2.1 million affected people averaged £62 per claim in May.
In a letter to Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, Mr Brown last night said: “I am writing with an urgent request that you consider suspending deductions from social security benefits until the energy and inflation crisis is over.
“I hope you can announce such a change before Christmas to prevent untold hardship when already poor families are being forced into extreme and abject poverty and in some cases destitution.”
A DWP spokesman last night said: "Deductions help protect claimants from enforcement actions such as eviction, ensure priority debts such as child maintenance are still addressed and help to recover taxpayers' money.
"We have reduced the standard cap on deductions twice in recent years, to 25 per cent of the Universal Credit standard allowance, doubled the period over which new claims can be repaid and stopped utility companies from being able to increase payments automatically.
"But we recognise people are struggling with rising prices and we're are protecting millions of those most in need with at least £1,200 this year including £400 towards energy costs and our Energy Price Guarantee, which will save around £900 for a typical household over the winter."
Read Gordon Brown's How To Survive The Winter pamphlet here.
