A LOT has happened over the past couple of weeks, but perhaps the most significant thing is the change from level 3 to level 2 for most areas of Scotland.

Indeed, the First Minister announced yesterday that Moray will be following most areas and will be entering level 2. Glasgow, unfortunately, still has rising cases, so if you’re reading this from Glasgow, please get a test even if you have no symptoms.

And I implore everyone, no matter which part of Scotland you are in: follow public health guidance, get vaccinated as soon as you can, self-isolate when necessary, and, above all, be careful. Normalcy is within touching distance.

With vaccines rolling out, people from most areas being able to visit loved ones in their homes and people heading to pubs and restaurants with restrictions easing, it’s easy to get swept up in forgetting that the economic consequences of the pandemic are still largely ongoing. Many businesses remain shut, and many families are suffering as people lose work or see their hours reduced.

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Governments the world over have made impressive decisions during this pandemic that you would have previously thought impossible.

From the furlough scheme in the UK to the government putting cash directly in people’s bank accounts in the US.

However, the reality is that rather than build on these schemes, the Tories are going to pull the rug out from under hundreds of thousands of people relying on the social security net to keep them afloat.

I’ve explained in detail many times (maybe too many) all the ways in which Universal Credit has been unfit for purpose and should never have been rolled out in the state it was in. When Theresa May was prime minister, her government tinkered around the edges of the project – slightly reducing the waiting period for the first payment for example – but did not address the core issues in the slightest.

Universal Credit did not and does not pay enough. The Tories routinely deny and ignore this undeniable fact but there was no greater admittance of how unfit for purpose Universal Credit is than when Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a £20 uplift to the benefit when the pandemic started.

Where £20 may seem like nothing to some people, evidence to numerous select committees show that often an extra £20 actually enables struggling families to afford luxuries like … food.

I remember in a Scottish Affairs Committee hearing over an hour’s worth of evidence about how important maintaining the uplift is. I asked each witness whether most of the problems they had described could be addressed by a permanent monetary increase in UC – they each replied yes. It is the reality the Tories will avoid, rather ironically, at any cost.

Since its announcement, my SNP colleagues and I have fought, and continue to campaign, for the increase to be made permanent.

The Chancellor, however, has been consistently clear that they have no intention of making it permanent with it due to end in October.

You might think it’s early to be blowing the siren on this, but it’s actually a critical time right now.

Particularly as things start to look more like pre-pandemic life, if people believe the support they currently receive is going to disappear, they may be more inclined to take risks with their health.

We can’t afford people going to work when they should be self-isolating because they can’t afford to be ill. Everyone needs to have the assurance that they can do the right thing without suffering hardship. It should go without saying, pandemic or not.

People need to have the confidence to trust that they will be supported. Last time we had an economic crisis the Tories turned to austerity – they cut budgets and cut social security benefits.

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They forced disabled people into dehumanising health assessments and have left families reliant on the charity of others to eat. The ramifications of austerity are painful and debilitating to those they are inflicted upon. I see it every day in my constituency office. You cannot punish people out of poverty, you must support and empower them.

My colleague, and SNP shadow work and pensions spokesperson, David Linden, said this week: “It’s now beyond doubt that the Tories have absolutely no intention of building a fair recovery from Covid. Instead their damaging plans to slash Universal Credit payments will leave thousands of families across Scotland worse off – entrenching poverty and inequality.”

He’s right. If the Prime Minister really meant it when he talked about “building back better” and “levelling up” he’d be focusing on building a social security system fit for purpose, not hacking away at it. No doubt the Prime Minister will soon be proclaiming about the wonder of GDP increases as people suffer through this cut.

An economy grows from investment. That investment can and should be made directly to real people if it is to have any value at all.