UK’s Sunak plans $680 one-time benefit payment

Bloomberg

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is planning to give a one-time benefit payment of 500 pounds ($680) to nearly six million people to help ease the economic fallout from a third coronavirus lockdown, the Times of London reported.
The plans come ahead of an April deadline when last March’s 20 pound-per-week uplift to universal credit payments is set to end.
Separately, the paper reported on Sunday that Sunak plans to start raising taxes in March to plug the budget deficit. One factor is that the virus vaccination program stays on track, the Sunday Times reported, citing senior government sources.
A bloc of Conservative lawmakers have called on Sunak to extend tax breaks and the increase in benefits payments in a letter to the chancellor, putting pressure on Sunak. He is mulling an extension of stamp duty cuts and more benefits, the Times said on Sunday.
A wage support program, which was extended last year, will see payouts to furloughed employees stop at the end of March.
As workers and businesses grapple with England’s latest lockdown restrictions, which began earlier this month and could last until the end of March, Sunak has cautioned that the current level of spending isn’t sustainable in the longer term.
While the UK economy shrank less than expected during November’s lockdown, reducing the risk of a double-dip recession, this month could see a bigger hit as non-essential shops and schools have shut in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus and ease the pressure on the state health-care system.