A CROSS-PARTY group of MPs is putting pressure on ministers to extend the £20-a-week “uplift” to all households claiming benefits during the Covid-19 pandemic.

MPs will be voting in the Commons tomorrow on whether to axe the £20-a-week boost to universal credit.

The all-party parliamentary group on poverty has called for the uplift to be extended past April and broadened, so that two million people on so-called legacy benefits can also receive it, as well as for the cap on benefits to be suspended.

Failure to do so will create a two-tier welfare system, the group has concluded.

The group’s report was published today amid a growing backlash from charities over Tory unwillingness to vote against plans to cut the benefits boost.

Group co-chair SNP MP Neil Gray said: “This is a significant intervention from a cross-party group of MPs, including Tory MPs, which warns that slashing social security payments in the middle of an economic crisis and a global pandemic could push more people into poverty at the worst possible time.”

Nearly 700,000 households, including 800,000 children, would be unable to afford the cost of everyday living if the uplift were withdrawn, the report says.

The Treasury is reported to be considering alternatives to the £6 billion-a-year payout, including a £500 lump sum or a six-month extension.

Six Tory backbenchers recently voted with Labour to retain the £20-a-week payment, including former work and pensions secretary Stephen Crabb.

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “Even the government’s own MPs do not support the Chancellor’s planned cut. 

“The government are running out of time to do the right thing: give certainty to families and secure our economy by cancelling their disastrous cut to universal credit.”