Universal Credit began to be rolled out from October 2013 to replace six means-tested benefits and tax credits. By 2020 it should apply to most new claims for help with income or rent. It is paid to people on low incomes who cannot work, are looking for work, or work on very low pay.

It is supposed to let people keep more of what they earn and thus boost incentives both to return to work and to earn more once in work. For every £1 extra earned the credit is reduced by 63p from April 2017 allowing the claimant to keep 37p. Before that it was 65p. This so called ‘withdrawal rate’ of 63p in the pound is said to be much lower than rates under the previous and allowing people to keep 37p of what they earn is seen as an incentive to work. However, that figure of 63p withdrawal rate is only accurate for people who earn less than £157 a week and are not householders.

Universal Credit is worked out after tax and National Insurance have been deducted. In 2017/18 anyone earning more than £157 a week will pay National Insurance and once they earn more than £221 a week income tax begins. Someone paying National Insurance will lose 12p in the pound before their Universal Credit is worked out. The total loss from NI and reduction in Universal Credit is just over 67p from each £1 they earn. So they keep less than 33p. If they pay income tax as well they lose just over 75p of each pound and keep just over 25p. The calculation were originally confirmed by Pensions Minister Steve Webb in Parliament in 2012 when the details were different. (Hansard, House of Commons, 11 September 2012, col.196).

But that is only part of the picture.

Universal Credit, despite its name, does not replace all means-tested benefits. It does not include the means-tested reduction in council tax which used to be called Council Tax Benefit but since 1 April 2013 has been replaced by a very similar scheme called Council Tax Support which is operated by local councils. Like all means-tested benefits Council Tax Support is withdrawn as income rises. The standard taper is 20p for each £1 rise in net income (after tax, NI, and Universal Credit withdrawal). In other words for each extra pound of net income help with council tax is reduced by 20p. The result is that for each £1 earned a total of 80p disappears in tax, NI, reduced Universal Credit, and reduced Council Tax Support. The calculation is at the foot of this blogpost.

In some areas of England and Wales the reduction for every £1 of income earned may be even higher. As part of the transfer to local councils the Government has cut the money it currently pays towards help with council tax. From 1 April 2013 councils get 90% of the money they got to pay Council Tax Benefit. The Government has already said that out of that reduced budget they will have to pay exactly the same benefit to anyone over pension age. Nearly half of all Council Tax Benefit recipients are pensioners so the other half – working age people who can claim Universal Credit – will bear the whole of the funding cut. That will mean a reduction for them of between 19% and 33% according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (www.ifs.org.uk/comms/comm123.pdf chapter 5). 

In areas which raise the Council Tax Support taper to 25% householders on Universal Credit who pay tax will find that 81p of each pound earned disappears in deductions. In areas with a 30% taper they will lose 82p and keep less than 18p for each extra pound earned in income tax, National Insurance, reduced Universal Credit and reduced Council Tax Support. In the three areas where the taper is 15% people will lose 79p of each extra pound. 

Students on plan 1 or plan 2 who pay in effect an extra 9% tax whose income is low enough to be entitled to Universal Credit lose typically 82.5p in the extra pound keeping just 17.5p. In areas where the council tax withdrawal rate is 30% they keep just 15p in every extra £1 they earn.

Some people object to the total deductions made from a means-tested benefit being called a 'tax'. They say that the reduction in a subsidy from taxpayers is not a tax. Tax, they say, mean a levy on your own money not a reduction in the money the state gives you. 

Losing 80% or more of each extra pound you earn is hardly an incentive to work or to work harder. It is almost twice the 42% tax and NI deductions for higher rate taxpayers with incomes over £45,000, three times the minimum wage.

1 April 2017
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