Universal Credit a failure, says report

Welfare: NAO criticism ‘a vindication’, says MP

JENNIFER MCKIERNAN, WESTMINSTER REPORTER

Highland MP Drew Hendry has said a damning report on Universal Credit has vindicated his years of warnings about its introduction.

Universal Credit has been designed as a single payment to replace six separate welfare payments, including job seeker’s allowance and housing credits.

But a report by the independent National Audit Office (NAO) on the system says the UK Government’s flagship social security system is failing to help people back into work, has led to increases in foodbank use, rent arrears and is not value for money.

NAO head Amyas Morse said: “We think the larger claims for Universal Credit, such as boosted employ- ment, are unlikely to be demonstrable at any point in future. Nor for that matter will value for money.”

Mr Hendry’s Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency was a pilot area for Universal Credit and one of the first areas across the UK to have a full service roll-out.

The MP has highlighted the cases of heavily pregnant single mother Natalie who, with no money, was told to make a 200-mile round trip from Aviemore to Aberdeen because the DWP had made an error with her National Insurance number, and another constituent who had to report to a work coach while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.

Mr Hendry said: “This damning report from the National Audit Office clearly shows Universal Credit is an ideological attack on the poorest in our society, by an increasingly right-wing Tory Government.

“Its findings, vindicate all those who have been sharing their stories of hardship and pain, only to be told time and again that the system was working.

“It cannot go on. Universal Credit must be halted now – before any more people have to go through the experiences people here have gone through.”

Angus Conservative MP Kirstene Hair said the previous welfare system was “out of control” .

“This is a major overhaul of the system and we need to get it right”, she

VINDICATED: Highland MP Drew Hendry is a long-standing critic of Universal Credit