Ahead of the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, I’m calling on the government to reverse cuts to the Universal Credit Work Allowance.

The Treasury reduced the programme’s funding by £3 billion annually after the Liberal Democrats left government in 2015, reducing the amount people can earn while on Universal Credit.

Several high profile Conservatives have joined the Lib Dems in calling on the government to reverse the cuts.

The whole point of Universal Credit is to make work pay, which it did before the Conservatives cut its funding.

As soon as the Liberal Democrats left government in 2015, the then Chancellor George Osborne took an axe to UC’s work allowances, slashing them by a shocking £3 billion pounds per year and reducing the amount people can earn on benefits.

This has destroyed the whole point of UC and pushed countless people below the water line.

That is why since being re-elected I have urged each respective DWP Secretary of State to demand the money be returned from the Treasury.

Today I am urging the Chancellor – when he gets up to make his Spring Statement tomorrow – to do the right thing and restore UC’s original work allowances so that work really does pay for millions of people in this country.

With the roll-out of UC only around 8% complete, the Chancellor must step up and rescue the programme before real disaster strikes.