Universal credit ‘is not fit for purpose’
Sturgeon warns millions are suffering
THERESA May is today warned by Nicola Sturgeon that universal credit is “not fit for purpose” and is causing misery for millions.
The First Minister of Scotland highlights how rent arrears and foodbanks have soared in areas where the despised benefits programme has been implemented.
And backing our campaign to halt the rollout to three million more families from July 2019, she attacked the “damaging impact it is having on our people and communi- ties”. The Mirror’s petition calling for a fairer system has already been signed by more than 22,200 readers.
Ms Sturgeon warns the lives of many desperate families “already struggling”
have actually been made worse. “Quite simply, the rollout of universal credit needs to be halted,” she writes in the Mirror.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry also attacked it, saying yesterday: “We must not come out of austerity on the backs of the poor. This is fundamentally wrong.” Even Iain Duncan Smith the architect of the system – called on the PM to back £2billion of extra funding for welfare in this month’s Budget. Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the Andrew Marr Show universal credit was working as he had received “no letters on it at all” – only to immediately be blasted by constituents who claimed their letters had simply been ignored.