CAMPAIGNERS in Sheffield staged a Budget-day protest today calling for the scrapping of the government’s reviled universal credit benefit system.

Unions, political parties and campaign and community groups have joined forces in the Yorkshire city to mount the Scrap Universal Credit campaign, led by Sheffield trades council.

Protesters gathered outside Department of Work and Pensions offices in Hartshead Square and marched to the town hall for a rally.

Trades council secretary and campaign group chairman Martin Mayer said: “Our message to the Tories is clear: End foodbank poverty, stop benefit sanctions and scrap universal credit.”

He suggested that if Prime Minister Boris Johnson planned to keep his pledge to “level up” living standards, “he could start by scrapping universal credit and replacing it with a system that actually supports people on low and no income.

“Millions have been made destitute, hundreds have died. We won’t stop till universal credit has been scrapped.

“Universal credit doesn’t just affect people who have no work but also people in work but on low incomes.

"New claimants have to wait five weeks minimum for any benefit and a vicious sanctions regime can deny claimants any benefits at all for weeks or months just for missing an interview or being a few minutes late.

“We are the fifth-wealthiest country on the planet, but it doesn’t feel like it for millions of UK citizens living in 21st-century poverty today.”

Mr Mayer added that disabled people were among the worst hit.