As part of the UK government’s latest budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced that the £20 weekly universal credit uplift introduced at the start of the pandemic would be extended until September while working tax credit claimants will be afforded the equivalent of a one-off £500 payment. To understand how these changes will impact claimants, we first need to look back at how the system has functioned since the pandemic. Amid soaring demand after the first lockdown, the “flagship” working-age benefit universal credit received 1.8 million new claims in the five weeks spanning the...