IT’S ALL OUR FAULT
Finally, a Tory tells the truth about Universal Credit and how it’s forced thousands to use foodbanks, as Amber Rudd admits...
UNIVERSAL Credit has forced people to rely on foodbanks, Welfare Secretary Amber Rudd has confessed.
After years of Tory denials over the hated benefit shake-up, she said delays in getting cash could be “the main issue” behind a surge in families going hungry.
Labour said: “Why haven’t they stopped the rollout?”
Two top MPs now say Ms Rudd is set to make radical changes to UC.
DESPITE compelling evidence, senior Tories have repeatedly denied that Universal Credit is a factor behind the surge in the use of foodbanks.
But Welfare Secretary Amber Rudd has at last accepted there is a link.
She told MPs yesterday: “It is absolutely clear that there were challenges with the initial roll-out of Universal Credit.
“And the main issue that led to an increase in foodbank use could have been the fact that people had difficulty accessing their money early enough.”
People moving on to the benefit were until last year forced to wait six weeks for their first payment. The standard delay has been cut to five weeks, but campaigners warn that this wait is still pushing people into poverty.
The Trussell Trust, Britain’s biggest foodbank network, gave out 1.3 million food parcels
Charity: She is listening to evidence
last year, up from 61,000 in 2010/11. The charity has long been insisting that UC has caused the huge rise.
Chief executive Emma Revie said: “It’s promising to see the Secretary of State is listening to the evidence of foodbanks across the UK.
“Universal Credit isn’t the poverty-fighting reform that was promised. What we need now is action to address the reasons why [UC] has forced some people to foodbanks.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The Conservatives have now admitted Universal Credit has left even more people reliant on foodbanks, so why haven’t they stopped the roll-out?” Top Tories have spent years refusing to accept the welfare changes – launched in 2013 and still being rolled out – were linked to the huge rise in people going to foodbanks.
Theresa May said in 2017 there were “many MINISTER Amber Rudd complex reasons” why people used them. And Ms Rudd’s predecessor Esther McVey previously tried to blame the surge on Labour.
Two influential MPs probing the use of foodbanks, Tory Heidi Allen and independent Labour MP Frank Field, say Ms Rudd may be set to make major changes to UC.
Mr Field predicted Ms Rudd will halt the roll-out of UC before 2023, which is the Tories’ deadline for having the system fully operational.
Ms Allen said: “It’s changing with Amber... She is listening.” And she called for an end to the “fundamental flaws” of the welfare system.
The PM’s spokesman said: “We have long acknowledged there were issues with the initial roll-out.”
The DWP said: “We’ve always said there are many reasons people use foodbanks and you cannot link to any one cause. We’ve responded quickly to the feedback we have had on UC and made numerous improvements.”