THE government was accused of “dithering and delaying” in providing support during the cost-of-living crisis today after a minister claimed that the universal credit (UC) uplift will not return.

Ministers have been facing calls for the return of the £20 weekly uplift to the benefit, which was introduced in the pandemic but withdrawn in October, to help the poorest households.

But Treasury chief secretary Simon Clarke ruled out the measure today, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We were always explicitly clear that was a temporary response to the pandemic.