Welfare payments ‘turn back clock to the 1950s’

WELFARE PAYMENTS have turned back the clock to the 1950s by allowing abusers to take control of family finances, an investigation by the Commons Work and Pensions Committee has shown.

The Universal Credit welfare system gives out money per household each month, which can leave survivors and their children dependent on an abusive partner for all their basic needs.

As one survivor with children put it: “He’ll wake up one morning with £1,500 in his account and (go) off with it, leaving us with nothing for weeks.”

Committee chairman Frank Field said: “This is not the 1950s. Men and women work independently, pay taxes as individuals, and should each have an independent income. Not only does UC’s single household payment bear no relation to the world of work, it is out of step with modern life and turns back

the clock on decades of hard-won equality for women.

“The Government must acknowledge the increased risk of harm to claimants living with domestic abuse it creates by breaching that basic principle, and take the necessary steps to reduce it.”

The committee took evidence showing that claimants living with domestic abuse can face seeing their entire monthly income, including money meant for their children, go into their abusive partner’s account.

MPs set out how this makes it harder for those being abused to leave and “there is a serious risk of Universal Credit increasing the powers of abusers”.

South Cambridgeshire Tory MP Heidi Allen, who sits on the committee, said Universal Credit is intended to mirror the world of work, but neither male nor female employees are obliged to have their wages paid into the bank account of their partner.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has a “moral duty” to make sure payments do not help abusers in any way, the committee said, calling for a private room in every Jobcentre, “without delay”.

MPs also want every Jobcentre Plus to appoint a domestic abuse specialist so Universal Credit can be “the lifeline out of abuse” and victims can provide for themselves and their family.

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Margaret Greenwood called for a pause in the roll-out of Universal Credit to “fix the problems”.

A Government spokesman said: “Tackling domestic abuse is something this Government takes incredibly seriously which is why we recently announced new actions to tackle this horrendous crime.

“We have specialist teams in every Jobcentre who can support victims of domestic violence.”