The other day while perusing my timeline on the website until recently known as Twitter, I spotted a post from Liam Halligan claiming that UK inflation is likely to surge to 5% and beyond because of the hopeless Labour government.
UK inflation was down in April, but is about to surge to 5pc and beyond – which will have seismic economic and political consequences
My latest weekly “Economic Agenda” column in today’s @Telegraph https://t.co/hWbGbNE5yU
— Liam Halligan (@LiamHalligan) May 24, 2026
From that I managed to make a guestimate of how that will possibly effect next year’s benefit payment rises.
This month (May 2026) already saw the first Universal Credit payment boosted from last year’s rate of £400.14 to £424.90 per month, while those getting the carer’s element saw a rise from £201.68 to £209.34 per month, thus increasing the total monthly amount from £601.82 to £634.24 (up £32.42 per month)
With inflation set to surge to at least 5%, I worked out with a bit of help from the sales calculator bit on the conversions app on my iPhone it would take the basic monthly payment of Universal Credit to £446.16 per month, except rules introduced by Labour means they’re supposed to rise with inflation + 3.1% on top of that, so I reckon that would take payments to £459.97 per month.
Likewise the same maths applied to the carers element would likely increase payments to £226.62 per month, for a total monthly amount of £686.59 per month (a £52.35 per month increase).
…then those getting the carers element on top of that would see their monthly payments go from £209.34 per month to about £226.62 per month, for a monthly income of £686.59 per month (up from £634.24 = +£52.35)
— ConservativeChitChat (@ConservativeCCh) May 24, 2026
I was thinking one way of bringing down costs is by encouraging / inspiring claimants to at least consider putting some of it towards starting a business and reduce payouts that way seeing as they knock money off payments the more you earn over a certain amount.