More than half of all universal credit payments to families with children in Scotland have money deducted by the Department of Work and Pensions, including because of debt owed to public bodies,...
Prime minister Boris Johnson has promised to consider increasing universal credit in line with inflation, to mitigate the impact of soaring inflation on the cost-of-living.
Universal credit claimants have been asked to prove their identity with several photographs, including one holding their local newspaper, as the Department for Work and Pensions aims to weed out...
Almost three quarters of UK parliamentary constituencies will be adversely affected by the proposed removal of additional Universal Credit support, according to an anti-poverty charity.
The government will face some tough choices on benefit reforms following record applications, with some aspects of the system already “ripe for reform”, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The Department for Work and Pensions has made “poor progress” in reducing fraud and error in the administration of Universal Credit, according to the National Audit Office.
The government should raise the rates of legacy benefits to remove unfair disparity in comparison to Universal Credit, a report from the Work and Pensions Committee has said.
Universal Credit needs an “emergency boost” to ensure it can properly support people finding themselves out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic, the TUC has said.
The government has been urged to get Universal Credit ‘battle ready’ for an unemployment ‘crisis’, after nearly one million people applied to receive UC benefits in just two weeks.
Universal Credit ‘advances fraud’ is estimated to have cost the Department for Work and Pensions up to £150m in the 18 months to December 2019, according to the National Audit Office.
Whichever party addresses the shortcomings of universal credit, it should commit to designing the system hand in hand with claimants, writes Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Iain Porter.
Labour has promised to scrap the “unmitigated disaster” of Universal Credit and replace the Department for Work and Pensions with a ‘Department for Social Security’.
The introduction of universal credit, and in particular the five-week delay before receipt of the first payment, has led to an “unacceptable” rise in rent arrears north of the border.
The government has side-stepped “the cruellest benefit cut in history” with the latest universal credit changes, according to the chair of the work and pensions committee.
