Live:- DWP Select Committee Discusses Universal Credit Rescue Package

Rescue package for Universal Credit  

The Budget included "the beginnings of a rescue package for Universal Credit" as the Chair put it, and the first questions to our experts will centre on whether Government has done enough to fix what the Committee has described as "fundamental flaws" with the policy, and huge problems in its implementation. 
 
The Committee's first report on Universal Credit had the single recommendation of cutting the initial wait from the standard six weeks to one month: in response, in the Budget the Government cut the first 7 days from the wait and proposed a package of other measures. 

Further areas of investigation

The Committee will also turn to its next areas for work on UC, which might include:

• the Committee's concern that the way UC is calculated penalises the self-employment
• how claiming UC affects children's access to free school meals
• how UC incentivises work, the stated central aim of the massive policy reform, through the work allowance and "taper rate" - the amount of benefit you lose for every pound you earn  

Witnesses

Wednesday 29 November, Wilson Room, Portcullis House
 
At 9:30am

• David Finch, Senior Economic Analyst, Resolution Foundation
• Andrew Hood, Senior Research Economist, Institute for Fiscal Studies
• Victoria Todd, Senior Technical Manager, Low Incomes Tax Reform Group
• Deven Ghelani, Director, Policy in Practice