A former Tory minister who oversaw the arrival of Universal Credit has been given a knighthood.
Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith received the gong on the New Years Honours list, which was announced on Friday evening.
The decision has sparked controversy as the MP was the architect behind the deeply controversial benefits system, which has received much criticism.
ChronicleLive has reported extensively on the chaos caused in the North East by Universal Credit, with claimants bravely sharing their stories of welfare reform and the benefit system, which in many cases has left them with next to nothing to live on.
However, the former Work and Pensions Secretary will receive his accolade from the Queen at Buckingham Palace next year.
Potential future Labour leader Lisa Nandy led criticism of the decision, tweeting that it was a reward for "a legacy of cruelty and failure".
Universal Credit was supposed to streamline the complicated benefits systems by rolling all payments into one.
However, sanctions and lengthy delays have left many struggling to survive and contributed to debt, rent areas and even homelessness.
Earlier this year, a watchdog - the National Audit Office - revealed it would probe the government’s monitoring of suicides among benefit claimants after studies revealed links between self-inflicted deaths and the “complicated, dysfunctional and punitive” nature of Universal Credit.
In 2016, Sir Iain quit the Cabinet as he attacked the Government's policy of welfare cuts.
However he previously sparked further controversy by appearing to laugh during a Commons debate on the Bedroom Tax.
Sitting on the front benches, he was accused of looking bored and not listening by Labour's John Robertson - causing him to throw his head back and laugh during a debate about a social housing reform that a University of Newcastle study linked to a rise in poverty.
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