Essentials guarantee and minimum income guarantee

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That this House supports calls to implement an essentials guarantee into Universal Credit to ensure no one goes without life’s essentials; commends the Trussell Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on their Essentials Guarantee campaign; congratulates these organisations on securing more than 150,000 petition signatures in support of the campaign; recognises an essentials guarantee would create a standard allowance for Universal Credit which always covers the cost of essentials including food, fuel, essential travel, communications, and sundries; regrets the existing Universal Credit standard allowance is exacerbating experiences of poverty; believes that while everyone’s needs are different, an essentials guarantee would provide baseline support to the benefit of all claimants; acknowledges that an essentials guarantee would guarantee a baseline income which, at a minimum, guarantees affordability for the cost of essentials; notes that relative needs would be further supported on top of the standard allowance for Universal Credit; recognises that benefit levels in the UK are insufficient in supporting families; further commends the efforts of the Scottish Government in exploring the possibility of a minimum income guarantee for all; and further calls on the Government to reform the UK welfare system to adequately support those who are unemployed or in low paid work.