‘Cruel and unjust benefit’
EAST Runcorn MP Mike Amesbury has welcomed his party’s plans to scrap universal credit (UC) as he branded it ‘cruel and unjust’.
UC was intended to replace separate types of benefit with one payment to simplify the welfare system and provide better incentives to work but has been dogged by controversy since its launch under the Coalition Government.
Key criticisms have included the long wait between applying and receiving the first payment – which arrives between about four and nearly six weeks later, and the sanctions system which deducts benefits payments for perceived infractions such as being late for job interviews and work assessments bit has been widely slated by jobseekers as being unduly harsh and indiscriminate, with punishments dished out despite legitimate reasons such as doctor’s appointments or travel disruption.
As well as politicians, charities and community groups have also slammed the controversial flagship welfare policy, linking it to spikes in foodbank use.
The Conservative Party claims UC has helped to boost employment, but Labour has pledged to axe it.
In his role as shadow employment minister, Mr Amesbury, Labour MP for Weaver Vale, was part of the team that drew up plans to give UC the chop, to be replaced by a system ‘supporting people rather than policing them’.
The party has said the change will lift up to 300,000 children out of poverty by scrapping the two-child limit and benefit cap.
The proposals would also reduce hardship by ending the five-week wait, introducing fortnightly payments, suspending sanctions and ending the digital only approach.
Mr Amesbury, who spoke at a recent
Labour party conference fringe event on the subject, said: “Universal credit has been one of the biggest issues impacting my constituents, people from all walks of life have contacted me who’ve been left suffering horrendous financial hardship due to the botched rollout of Universal Credit.
“It’s a cruel and unjust system that’s simply beyond repair and must be replaced with a system that genuinely helps people into work and supports those who need help.”