Lord Freud, who as welfare reform minister was the architect of the controversial universal credit system, is stepping down from government after six years, Downing Street has said.
David Freud, 66, is a former banker who was brought in by Tony Blair’s Labour government to advise on streamlining the benefits system.
He subsequently took a Conservative peerage, and David Cameron appointed him as the coalition government’s welfare reform minister in the Lords. He was the only minister who had held the same post since 2010.
The introduction of universal credit has been beset with delays and technical glitches, and a series of deep budget cuts by the previous chancellor, George Osborne, means that for many recipients it will be significantly less generous than the plethora of benefits it replaces.
Freud could also be gaffe-prone: he was forced to issue an apology in 2014 after appearing to suggest at a Conservative party fringe meeting that disabled workers were not worth the minimum wage.
But, announcing his retirement, Freud, said he was proud of his achievement in simplifying the welfare system. “At the heart of our reforms is desire to give people independence to improve their lives. For too long people have been trapped by a byzantine benefits system, leaving them powerless.
“This has always been my driving force: to give people back control over their own lives, to give support in times of need, but also to give a clear route out of the benefits system and into independence.”
Iain Duncan Smith, who worked closely alongside Freud before resigning in March, said the peer’s departure from government had been planned since before Theresa May took over as prime minister. “He said he would see it through to Christmas,” Duncan Smith said.
He added that Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund, the legendary psychoanalyst, had a formidable grasp of the benefits system.
“We were together all the way through,” Duncan Smith said. “He likes to get right into the detail. That’s his method of working, so he was a very good deputy to me.”
Damian Green, the work and pensions secretary, said Freud “combines vision with an impressive attention to detail”.
He added: “I want to thank him for everything he has done over the years at DWP, and for all the help and support he has given to me and his ministerial colleagues. His will be a legacy of which he can be truly proud.”
The government is expected to appoint a new Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesperson in the House of Lords, but they will not take the title of welfare reform minister.
DWP sources said Freud had been sharing his six years of accumulated knowledge about the welfare system with fellow ministers in the department Caroline Nokes and Damian Hinds, who will take up the mantle of delivering the changes.
Conservative backbenchers, including Duncan Smith himself, have expressed concern in recent weeks about whether universal credit now provides sufficient incentives for low-paid employees to take up more work.
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced in last week’s autumn statement that he would partially reverse planned cuts to universal credit, by reducing the taper rate at which it is withdrawn as earnings increase, from 65p to 63p in every £1. But campaigners, including the Conservative Cambridge MP, Heidi Allen, have said they will continue to urge the government to make the system more generous.
