Universal Credit’s creator IDS demands cut in wait for payouts

THE architect of the Tories’ flagship benefit reforms has demanded wholesale changes to prevent claimants waiting so long to get their first handout.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, told ITV News the waiting time for the first Universal Credit payment should be cut.

He blamed George Osborne, the former chancellor, for making people wait six weeks to receive the first payment.

Mr Duncan Smith said two of the weeks were not ‘wholly necessary’ and a fourweek delay was what he had envisaged.

The intervention came on the day that Commons speaker John Bercow announced an emergency debate on the controversial reforms. He set aside three hours this afternoon after Tory MPs joined with Labour to demand ministers come to Parliament to explain themselves.

The fact that Mr Duncan Smith – a former Conservative leader – has spoken out will pile further pressure on Philip Hammond to make changes to the UC regime in next month’s Budget.

Ministers have been warned that reports of hardship caused to many tenants by the 42-day wait risks turning the flagship welfare policy into a ‘new poll tax’. Last week, Theresa May caved in to demands from Jeremy Corbyn and abolished call charges to a helpline. The Labour leader raised the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions, saying it was a scandal claimants were charged up to 55p a minute.

The Smith Institute think-tank has estimated that claimants are £150 in rent arrears on average because of the payment delays. Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘The idea of the extra days was not something which I or my colleagues came up with.

‘It was a Treasury matter at the time and I think it’s certainly worth them reviewing that to see whether or not they can get rid of the waiting days – they’re not wholly necessary.’

Last night two Labour councils, Southwark and Croydon, guinea pigs for the changes, piled pressure on the Government, saying the new regime pushed poor tenants deeper into rent arrears and meant more needed food banks.

They said without changes the new system could have a devastating effect as it is rolled out over the next few months. Arrears, they said, could reach ‘many hundreds of millions of pounds’ and tenants could face severe hardship.