Amber Rudd secretly lobbied a contender for Prime Minister to cut waiting times for Universal Credit, it emerged today.
Jeremy Hunt revealed the Tory welfare chief “persuaded” him the five-week wait for people's first payment should be axed.
The leadership candidate’s surprise vow - which would be a boost for millions of struggling Brits - came after months of pressure to cut waiting times.
And crucially it goes further than what the Work and Pensions Secretary has said in public.
On Sunday, when asked if cutting the five-week time was a priority, she said she was “much more content” with waiting times than in the past.
But less than 36 hours later Mr Hunt told a Tory leadership debate: “She has persuaded me that we do need to end the five week wait before people can claim Universal Credit .
"I think [it] is the right reform but I think had unintended consequences when people had that wait early on."
It is understood Jeremy Hunt backer Ms Rudd has not yet met his leadership rival Boris Johnson - who refused even to pledge he’ll end the cruel benefit freeze - to discuss the issue.
But a source said “she will be making the same arguments to Boris that she made to Jeremy” if she keeps her job in a Cabinet reshuffle.
Housing associations have demanded the five-week wait is cut after driving families into hardship.
Last month the Riverside Group surveyed 350 residents and found 81% saw financial hardship - with 41% turning to food banks.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) insists anyone can get an advance, worth a month's benefit, so they don't go hungry.
Yet these must be repaid out of one's future benefits over a period lasting up up to a year.
The standard five week wait was cut from six weeks last year after a Tory outcry. But calls to slash it further have been rebuffed amid fears of huge cost and bureaucracy.
In January Ms Rudd said: "At the moment I'm satisfied with what we've got but I'm going to keep it under review."
And on Sunday she said: "I have acknowledged that the early roll-out of Universal Credit did in my view contribute to the rise in food banks.
"Part of that was because people weren’t able to access the money they were entitled to even within that period.
"[In] my own constituency only about 50 to 55% were getting it on time. But now it’s about 86-87% so I’m much more content with it."
New figures show 2.2million people were on Universal Credit by June - up 600,000 in three months - despite a vow to hold back existing benefit claimants from joining the new system.
Despite the delay, hundreds of thousands of existing claimants are being forced to join UC due to a "change of circumstances", like moving house, a break-up or a child's fifth birthday, with no transition payments.
And 14% of people still don't get their full first payment within the recommended five weeks, latest figures from February show.
