OUR faith calls us to be a source of hope and practical help for those facing hardship — a shared calling that lies at the heart of our mission at Christians Against Poverty (CAP). We walk with people through debt and poverty, showing them that there is always hope.
This desire to help, we believe, is also at the core of our social-security system, and we welcome the Government’s recent moves to improve Universal Credit, such as by extending free school meals and increasing basic support. These are positive steps towards building a true safety net.
Yet these good intentions are undermined by a fundamental flaw: the five-week wait for a first payment. When someone loses their job, flees an abusive home, or becomes too ill to work, they need stability. Instead, they face a five-week gap with no income: a period when anxiety can quickly overwhelm hope.
This is not a theoretical problem: we see the real-world consequences. Our front-line experience shows that 58 per cent of our clients are on Universal Credit, with average debts of almost £16,000. Our latest polling data reveal the urgent reality of the cost-of-living crisis: almost one quarter (23 per cent) of UK adults — 12.5 million people — had to reduce their heating this past year. More than seven million (13 per cent) skipped a meal to save money.
For these individuals and families, a five-week wait is not an inconvenience: it is a crisis. The advance payments offered to fill the gap are not a grant, but a loan. This means that a person’s first interaction with state support forces them into additional debt at their most vulnerable moment; a contradiction that works against the very people whom the system is designed to help.
We see the human cost in parents choosing between heating and eating, and in the toll on mental health as the bills pile up. A system designed for security should not, by its structure, create deeper instability.
THE Government’s justification for the five-week wait is based on Universal Credit’s being paid in arrears, structured to provide money at the end of a month, like a wage. The intention is to maintain a monthly payment style.
This relies on two assumptions, however: that people have enough savings to wait five weeks, and that work pays monthly. From more than 25 years of working with people in financial difficulty, we know that this is not always the case. The Financial Conduct Authority found that “one in ten people have no cash savings at all, and another 21% have less than £1,000 to draw on in an emergency.” CAP typically serves the lowest 20 per cent of earners, many of whom have no financial reserves. Sporadic incomes and irregular payment dates are also common in low-paid work.
Another defence is the “advance payment” as a solution for immediate hardship; the Government claims that these prevent claimants from going without income.
CAP, along with many other organisations, strongly rejects these justifications. Our response is unequivocal: simulating a monthly pay cycle should not come at the cost of pushing vulnerable individuals into debt. The advance payment, while presented as a safety net, is ultimately a loan that must be repaid. This often leads to reduced payments, through deductions, for more than two years afterwards.
This repayment burden contradicts the principle of a safety net, embedding debt into the system from the outset. This structure creates unnecessary hardship, leading to increased demand for foodbanks and emergency services, and exacerbating mental-health challenges.
AS A society, we share a belief in offering dignity, justice, and compassion. Ahead of the autumn budget, there is a clear opportunity to align our welfare system with its compassionate purpose.
Our call is simple and constructive: end the five-week wait. Converting the advance payment into a non-repayable grant would be a powerful, practical expression of the values that so many of us hold dear. It would prevent a crisis, restore dignity, and ensure that a safety net is there for people when they fall, not five weeks later. Let’s make this change, and build a system that truly reflects the hope and compassion that we are called to offer.
CAP is far from alone in this call. A broad coalition of charities, think tanks, and social-justice organisations have campaigned consistently for an end to the five-week wait. Groups such as Trussell, Child Poverty Action Group, Citizens Advice, and the Resolution Foundation have all highlighted the detrimental impact of this waiting period on low-income households, calling for it to be either significantly reduced or for advance payments to be converted into non-repayable grants. These organisations agree that the current system is problematic.
Turning a loan into a grant is a relatively small change, but the effect would be transformational.
We wait with bated breath for the budget and the outcomes of the Universal Credit review. Join us in prayer and in raising our voices to our MPs to end the five-week wait.
Stewart McCulloch is the chief executive of Christians Against Poverty.
