Universal Credit U- turn is ‘close’

TORY rebels believe Theresa May is on the brink of a second U-turn over Universal Credit, as she battles to contain a growing outcry over the flagship benefit reform.

Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland claimed that one of the system’s most contentious issues – the six-week waiting time for benefits to be paid – was ‘very close to resolution’.

The system is the biggest change to the benefits system since the 1940s, combining a number of payments for working age people into one payment.

However, MPs from all parties have been bombarded with complaints because nearly a quarter of claimants do not receive their first full payment within six weeks, which has been linked to rent arrears and debt.

Mrs May avoided a Tory revolt on the issue in a Commons vote on Wednesday by committing to scrap charges to call a UC helpline – and ordering her party to abstain on a non-binding Labour motion calling for the introduction of the reform to be paused.

Mr McPartland told the BBC: ‘I would like to see [the first payment wait] reduced to four weeks. People accept you have to be paid in arrears. A lot of people on UC will be in work, paid in arrears, so we would like to see it set down to four weeks which you would have when you went into work.

‘On that particular issue, I think we are very, very close to getting a resolution.’

But sources at the Department for Work and Pensions played down talk of an imminent U-turn.

One said they were ‘always looking to learn and improve and identify problems’ but denied there was a review into the sixweek waiting time.