THERESA May is preparing a major concession over Universal Credit, Tory sources have claimed, amid fears the benefit could become the party’s next poll tax.
The six-week wait for payments, which has been blamed for rising indebtedness, rent arrears and evictions, could be reduced to a month, it was reported on Sunday.
The Prime Minister insisted just last week that universal credit, which rolls half-a-dozen working-age benefits into one, was “a system that is working”, although she did agree to end the 55p per minute charge to the telephone helpline for the benefit.
However mounting evidence of problems, and Tory MPs worried that its UK-wide roll out could prove a political disaster, appear to have forced a rethink in Whitehall.
The former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major has urged a review of the scheme, calling it “operationally messy, socially unfair and unforgiving”.
Since the roll-out of universal credit began four years ago, almost a quarter of the 610,000 claimants have had to wait six weeks for the first payment, pushing some into destitution.
The government recently announced advanced payments to offset the delay.
However Tory MPs told the Sunday Telegraph that ministers were looking at how to reduce the six-week period and that “four weeks is the target”.
Writing in the Sunday Times, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said the idea that everyone had savings to fall back on for 42 days was “grotesquely ignorant”.
He said ministers should take a “courageous” look at the benefit.
He said: “Millions of people, especially those in need of support, are already in debt and have nothing to fall back on. If their rental payments lapse, they are at risk of eviction.
“That means, in the case of families with young children, an additional burden for their local council, which is obliged to house them and whose resources are already stretched to breaking point.”
Johnny Mercer, one of the Conservative MPs who met Mrs May to discuss worries about the rollout of the system, told Sky News’s Sunday with Niall Paterson: “I’m confident that this government is listening. If they weren’t I would say something about it.”
Tory MP Stephen McPartland, another critic, told BBC Radio 4's Week at Westminster he thought a resolution was close.
He said: "I think the Secretary of State [David Gauke] has found it very difficult to justify inside the parliamentary party why they need to defend a six-week wait."
Shadow pensions secretary Debbie Abrahams said Labour still thought universal credit could help people on benefits into work, but more than a waiting time cut was needed to fix it.
She told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: “A reduction to four weeks would be a huge advantage. But I also asked for alternative pay arrangements. For example, if somebody wanted to be paid fortnightly, if they want the housing element to be paid directly to the landlord, they could.”
The UK government said ministers were “determined to ensure that people joining universal credit don’t face hardship”, and had improved the advance payment system.
A spokeswoman said: “We will continue to monitor and take any actions if necessary. But no decisions or announcements on any further actions are imminent.”
SNP MP Neil Gray said Universal Credit was causing humiliation and suffering for many.
He said: "It is utterly botched, it is hurting people and it is just the latest disaster to hit households from this incompetent Tory government."
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