Universal Credit Pushed Back to 2024

UNIVERSAL CREDIT - Roll out of Universal Credit has been put on hold once more. This has added another £500m to the cost.

People are frightened of moving onto Universal Credit because of the benefits reputation. Landlords are evicting tenants without any justification simply because they are on Universal Credit.

The system was meant to be fully live by April 2017, but the new delay will push it back to September 2024

Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State, starts on Tuesday.

The new benefit, which replaces six existing payments, has been beset by problems, with claimants having to wait at least five weeks for the payments to start and many reports of people falling into debt, and having to resort to food banks as a consequence.

The backroom discussions leading to the latest delay were recorded by a BBC team whose series, Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State, starts on Tuesday.

Neil Couling, the senior civil servant in charge of the rollout for the past five years, is filmed telling a Whitehall meeting: "We've got a lot of anecdotal evidence of people being scared to come to universal credit.

Despite the problems, Mr Couling says he believes that once universal credit is fully implemented, it will be successful and regarded as "the right thing to do".

"This is the system that will form the bedrock of social security for the next 30 years."

He expects universal credit to continue to grow, with 2.6 million people already on it by September last year: "Right now there's no way I can put the brakes on and stop.

"I have to keep going to the destination or you have to set me a different destination, because there's 2.6 million people, and if we get something wrong we could disrupt their lives and they've got no alternative. There's no alternative bank they can go to get help. We are the payer of last resort."

Image: Margaret Greenwood. 

Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary, Margaret Greenwood, called the news "hugely embarrassing" for the government and called for universal credit to be scrapped.

"Universal credit was supposed to be its flagship social security programme.

"Instead we now find that it is being forced to delay the full rollout because the public have so very little faith in it and many are actually afraid of it," said Ms Greenwood.

The government says universal credit was always intended to be introduced slowly.

It is "the biggest change to the welfare system in a generation, bringing together six overlapping benefits into one monthly payment and offering support to some of the most vulnerable people in society", said Mr Quince.

"It is right that we revisit our forecasts and plan, and re-plan, accordingly, ensuring that the process is working well for people on benefits."

"It's a potentially serious issue for us, in terms of completing the project by December 2023, but I'm urging people not to panic."

ABC Note: At the ABC we say that panicking is a good idea. The welfare freeze in 2012 meant that the housing elements is based on 2012 rents. As rents have climbed due to the Housing Crisis money is deducted from the living element from the benefit to subsidise the shortfall. If you have to borrow to cover moving onto the benefit which is paid in arrears this money is rapidly clawed back leaving you destitute.

The DWP have lost cases in the Courts one after another. There are other problems the ABC have highlighted like the Assessment Period. The problems of getting paid twice in one assessment period which creates the impression you are much better off than you are. Or firms that pay you but do not update the payroll till later. This can put payments in the wrong assessment period.

Universal Credit is just far too complex. It has not simplified the benefits system it is too rigid and inflexible. It puts people off taking a job and for the self-employed is a complete nightmare.

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