Exclusive:Scottish Lib Dem MP urges ministers to help struggling farmers access universal credit

The transition to universal credit has not worked, the MP claimed

A Scottish Liberal Democrat MP has urged ministers to help farmers struggling to access universal credit.

Farming families are being moved from working tax credits to universal credit (UC), in a process the industry has criticised as the rules for self-employed claimants don’t reflect how the farming industry operates.

Now Wendy Chamberlain, the MP for North East Fife, has claimed farmers are struggling so much with the transition, they are giving up entirely.

Speaking to The Scotsman, she said: “Farmers have faced extreme difficulty with the transition to Universal Credit, which is needed to sustain them during off seasons or less profitable months, sometimes years.

“There are several reasons for this, but the bottom line is that the transition system simply does not take the financial nature of farming into account. This is evident with the imposition of the Minimum Income Floor which means that the one lump sum of income farmers might receive once a year, is causing vital income support to be taken away in those months where their produce is being produced rather than sold.

Wendy Chamberlain MP at a farm in North East Fife.

“Farmers also don’t have time to sort through their accounts, attend job centre meetings or even take a job centre phone call when they are out in the middle of a field during lambing season, for example.

“Several of my constituents are farmers, and they’ve told me that the transition to Universal Credit has been so difficult that many farmers have had to give up on the process and instead make their own sacrifices.

“On a Facebook support group for Farming Families, one person wrote that they were able to feed their children, but they could not afford to eat that day themselves. This just isn’t OK.

“Farmers are the reason why we have food on our tables, why our children have the energy to go to school and learn, why we can go to the supermarket and make dinner tonight, why our restaurants are some of the best in the world. We must support them.”

It comes at a time when the UK Government has already faced protests and a backlash over a 20 per cent inheritance tax rate on agricultural land and businesses worth more than £1 million, which is set to come into force from April 2026.

The measure was introduced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first Budget, prompting a furious response from farmers who have argued it will force land sales, stall investment, and hurt families hoping to pass their farms on to the next generation.

Farmers gathered by the Houses of Parliament on Thursday in a bid to maintain pressure on the Government to reverse the planned changes. They also hit out at the abrupt closure of the Government’s flagship nature-friendly farming payments scheme, with one describing it as “another attack on the countryside”.

Sir Roger Gale, another Conservative MP who came out to support the farmers, said: “The farmers provide the food that we put on our tables and if we don’t have them then we become immediately dependent on imported food, very often over thousands of miles from other countries and it puts our whole food security at risk.

“We can’t allow that to happen.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We support millions of people, including those who are self-employed like farmers, through Universal Credit every year.

“We recognise that these individuals are more likely to experience large monthly fluctuations in their earnings, and steps have been taken to account for this – including a 12-month grace period to give people’s earnings time to adapt.”