Did increasing the UK’s Universal Credit and working tax credits by £20 per week in 2020–2021 reduce food insecurity?

Loopstra, Rachel, Geiger, Ben Baumberg and Reeves, Aaron ORCID: 0000-0001-9114-965X (2025) Did increasing the UK’s Universal Credit and working tax credits by £20 per week in 2020–2021 reduce food insecurity? Journal of Social Policy. ISSN 0047-2794

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Abstract

This paper evaluates the UK Government’s decision to increase the main form of social security by £20 per week during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, exploring whether increasing the generosity of social security for some, but not all, claimants affected food insecurity. Using the Family Resources Survey, we found a decline of about 7 percentage points in food insecurity amongst benefit claimants affected by the uplift compared with claimants not affected (95% CI −13.9 to −0.9%). This association did not change substantively following adjustment for covariates, nor when the model was re-estimated using matching methods. Results were not driven by changes in the composition of claimants over time. These analyses suggest food insecurity could be reduced if the generosity of the social security system increased. In actuality, the UK government went in the opposite direction, removing the £20 uplift in October 2021, potentially exposing claimants to higher rates of food insecurity again.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Authors
Divisions:	Sociology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Date Deposited:	05 Mar 2025 09:18
Last Modified:	05 May 2025 16:03
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/127501

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