MPs calling for halt to Universal Credit rollout

MINISTERS are facing fresh demands by MPs to halt the mass roll-out of Universal Credit (UC) until they can ensure no more claimants are pushed “over the edge” and into debt.

The cross-party Commons Work and Pensions Committee warned the support offered to claimants transferring to UC was “woefully inadequate” and risked undermining the whole project.

The report piles pressure on Chancellor Philip Hammond, who is facing calls from a number of Tory MPs to provide additional cash to ease the transition to the new system when he delivers the Budget today.

It comes just days after MPs on the Commons Public Accounts Committee accused the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) of turning a “deaf ear” to the concerns of claimants facing “unacceptable” levels of hardship.

Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey insisted the system, which is intended to ensure work always pays, was helping the jobless into employment, but acknowledged there was a need to “adapt and change”.

The warnings follow repeated complaints that low income families and individuals in areas where UC has been introduced are being driven into debt because of delays in issuing the payments.

In its report, the Work and Pensions Committee said the DWP’s system of “universal support” which is supposed to help claimants adapt to UC, which merges six benefits into one, fell far short of what was needed.

Vulnerable people needed more than the single two-hour session of “personal budgeting and digital skill support” they were currently entitled to if they were to maintain their claims under the new system.