By Vivienne Russell | 22 November 2012
The change to locally run council tax benefit schemes could ‘seriously undermine’ the government’s welfare reforms, MPs have warned.
It is one of several flaws and contradictions in the plan to simplify the benefits system through a single Universal Credit, the Commons work and pensions select committee said today.
‘The decision to localise council tax schemes under a proliferation of local schemes, rather than including it in Universal Credit’, would ‘work against the objective of simplification’, the MPs said. It would introduce local variation, add complexity and otherwise undermine the objectives of the single benefit.
In a detailed and wide-ranging report, the MPs said they were also concerned that the shift to an online claims system and a single monthly payment for the Universal Credit would harm some vulnerable claimants.
Committee chair Anne Begg said: ‘The measures the government plans to put in place to help these claimants may be difficult to access and too slow in identifying who these people are, with the risk that they will fall into debt and hardship before extra support can be provided.’
She added: ‘We believe the government should reflect on the possible consequences of these major changes for some of the most vulnerable people in society and that it should consider modifying its implementation timescale if those consequences cannot be adequately addressed before national roll-out begins.’
Other concerns raised by the committee included paying the housing costs element direct to claimants, rather than landlords, which could lead to some missing rent payments and falling into arrears. The MPs also said they were not yet satisfied that the proposed system would provide disabled claimants with a more generous level of support.
‘Transitional protection will mean that [disabled claimants] do not lose in cash terms immediately, but this protection will erode over time, will be lost if their circumstances change, and is not available to new claimants,’ Begg said.
‘The government needs to address concerns about disability additions within and outside Universal Credit to ensure there is no diminution in the benefit package which disabled people receive.’
