Government admit benefits problem
IT should have been quite a scandal.
Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd told the House of Commons that Universal Credit, the Government’s new benefits system, had forced people to rely on foodbanks to feed themselves and their families.
She should know, as the Cabinet Minister responsible for the policy.
Ms Rudd was answering a question from Sharon Hodgson, the Labour MP for Washington and Sunderland West, who wanted to know what research the Government had done on the effects of Universal Credit.
She replied: “It is clear that there were challenges with the initial roll-out of universal credit, and the main issue that led to an increase in food bank usage could have been the fact that people had difficulty accessing their money early enough.
“We have made changes to accessing universal credit, so that people can have advances and so that there is a legacy run on after two weeks of housing benefit, and we believe that that will help with food insecurity.”
We know that the number of people using food banks has risen at the same time as Universal Credit has been rolled out across the country.
And here was Ms Rudd admitting what many other people have already said – that the new benefit system appears to be the cause.
She also claimed that some of the problems had now been fixed. In particular, she said that claimants previously had to wait too long for their money, but were now offered “advances” which provided them with cash.
But if you look closely at what she said, it wasn’t very reassuring.
“We believe that that will help with food insecurity,” said Ms Rudd. It doesn’t sound like she’s confident the changes to Universal Credit are certain to stop people going hungry.
In the North East of England, there were 88,000 on Universal Credit as of December 2018. In many cases, each of those people will be part of a household where others, including children, are also depending on the payments they receive.
We’re not a poor country. It should be possible to ensure nobody actually has to go without food, or to suffer the indignity of having to rely on donations.
Of course, many people will argue that relying on benefits shouldn’t be easy (though around a third of Universal Credit payments actually work).
But what’s sending people to food banks, as Ms Rudd admitted, isn’t the amount of money they get, even though it’s hardly a fortune. It’s the fact that it hasn’t been paid out when they need it.
And that’s because the new benefit system has been so badly designed.
Perhaps the lack of outrage comes from the fact that she was confirming what we already knew. Charity the Trussell Trust, which runs foodbanks, and the independent National Audit Office have already warned that Universal Credit causes poverty.
But now even the Government Minister responsible admits there’s a problem.