Benefits debacle hits people hard

THE sweeping changes to welfare in Britain – encapsulated in the catch-all online benefit universal credit – is an ongoing disaster.

The rolling catastrophe as the benefit is rolled out without being fixed is causing misery and wasting a fortune.

The whole pointless upheaval in the benefits system has inflicted untold suffering on claimants and has achieved nothing measurable, according to the National Audit Office assessment of the fiasco.

Add to that the revelations from whistleblowers that the IT system that powers the online claim form is so broken it will only inflict more misery, and it is clear the game is a bogey.

Universal credit has caused severe hardship with a quarter of claims paid late.

Areas where universal credit is rolled out see a 30 per cent upsurge in foodbank use and 60 per cent of claimants need an advance before payments come through, which becomes added debt.

After eight years of failure, you would think the Government would admit defeat and start again, with a welfare system on a human scale, designed to meet human needs.

Instead, the “computer says no” mentality and a solid disregard for the damage caused by benefit cuts is driving the system on and communities into the ground.