Labour MP slams Tory benefit as ‘an agent of destitution’
THE Universal Credit scheme has become an “agent of destitution”, Labour MP Frank Field warns today.
The Work and Pensions Committee chair says the Tory welfare shake-up, which wraps six existing benefits into a single payment, is pushing families further into poverty.
He says the Government must reform it and urges the big energy firms to follow the lead of Npower, which offers two free weeks for families “staring destitution in the face”. In Burning Injustices, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Mr Field says the Tories have changed welfare from being a “line of defence against destitution” to “becoming an active agent in its creation”. He adds of Universal Credit: “It is an obstacle course of unreliable computer systems, arcane rules, massive delays and maladministration.”