The Conservative leader of Cornwall Council has been asked to call on the Government to reverse the cutting of the £20 a week Universal Credit uplift.

It was one of a number of recommendations agreed by the council's health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee at its meeting yesterday.

The Government had provided an increase of £20 a week for Universal Credit (UC) claimants to help them during the pandemic. The increase ended this week and there have been concerns expressed that it will leave some families struggling.

Councillor Colin Martin proposed the recommendation to call on council leader Linda Taylor to lobby the Government to reverse the Universal Credit (UC) uplift after hearing from Cornwall's director of public health who said that it could have an impact on the health and wellbeing of those receiving the benefit.

Rachel Wigglesworth said:

"I am no economist but we are entering a period of economic adversity, particularly for families on low incomes.

"I am concerned about how any reduction in income or reduction in employment benefits has a knock-on effect with health outcomes."

She said that while this was an issue in other parts of the UK there were particular issues in Cornwall and said:

"We need to protect the most vulnerable when we can."

The committee also called for the enhanced response area measures, which were introduced to tackle a rise in Covid-19 cases in Cornwall, to be reintroduced.

Some councillors were concerned that while the enhanced response area status, which started on September 15th and ended last week, saw increased publicity to raise awareness there had been little in increasing opportunities for people to get vaccinated.

Councillor Jayne Kirkham said:

"During the enhanced response area, we had some vans and had people handing out leaflets and doing surveys. We didn't have extra people doing vaccinations."

The Falmouth councillor said that while there had been some extra provision at the university the last pop-up vaccination centre in Falmouth was on September 17th.

She said there was a need to encourage more young people to get vaccinated and asked whether school vaccinations had started.

Director of public health Rachel Wigglesworth said that schools across Cornwall were now working with health partners to offer children vaccinations.

She also said that she felt that the enhanced response area "did contribute something when our rates were starting to look worse in the 16 to 29 age group".

The highest rates currently are among the 12 to 15 age group, which is linked to schools going back for the new term and that age group being largely unvaccinated.

The committee also agreed to call on the government to provide extra direct funding to Cornwall's public health budget "to allow our excellent team to continue their innovative work". And the committee also called for an inquiry into the pandemic "without further delay".

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