Labour will seek to renew pressure on the government over the rollout of universal credit, hoping to force the government to publish a set of impact reports using the same arcane parliamentary device that led to the release of key Brexit papers.
The House of Commons will be asked on Tuesday to make a “humble address” to the Queen requesting ministers to release project assessment reviews conducted into the welfare reform, which Labour argues needs to be urgently paused and reviewed.
What is universal credit?
Universal credit is the supposed flagship reform of the benefits system, rolling together six benefits (including unemployment benefit, tax credits and housing benefit) into one, online-only system. The theoretical aim, for which there was general support across the political spectrum, was to simplify the benefits system and increase the incentives for people to work, rather than stay on benefits.
How long has it been around?
The project was legislated for in 2011 under the auspices of its most vocal champion, Iain Duncan Smith. The plan was to roll it out by 2017. However, a series of management failures, expensive IT blunders and design faults have seen it fall at least five years behind schedule.
What is the biggest problem?
The original design set out a minimum 42-day wait for a first payment to claimants when they moved to universal credit (in practice this is often up to 60 days). After sustained pressure, the government announced in the autumn 2017 budget that the wait would be reduced to 35 days from February 2018. This will partially mitigate the impact on many claimants of having no income for six weeks. The wait has led to rent arrears (and in some cases to eviction), hunger (food banks in universal credit areas report notable increases in referrals), use of expensive credit and mental distress.
Ministers have expanded the availability of hardship loans (now repayable over a year) to help new claimants while they wait for payment. And housing benefit will now continue for an extra two weeks after the start of a universal credit claim. However, critics say the five-week waiting time is not enough and want it reduced to two or three weeks.
Are there other problems?
Plenty. Multibillion-pound cuts to work allowances imposed by the former chancellor George Osborne mean universal credit is far less generous than originally envisaged. According to the Resolution Foundation thinktank, about 2.5m low-income working households will be more than £1,000 a year worse off when they move on to universal credit, reducing work incentives. Landlords are worried that the level of rent arrears racked up by tenants on universal credit could lead to a rise in evictions. It's also not very user-friendly: claimants complain the system is complex, unreliable and difficult to manage, particularly if you have no internet access.
Labour said the government had so far ignored a ruling in August by the information commissioner that five of the reports, drafted between 2012 and 2015, should be released to campaigners because their publication would be in the public interest.
After Labour used the same method to obtain the Brexit impact papers, the Speaker, John Bercow, accepted Labour’s argument that a vote on a humble address is binding on the government, unlike most motions tabled by the opposition.
The shadow work and pensions secretary, Debbie Abrahams, said: “These reports could further expose the implementation flaws, design failures and the impacts of major cuts to universal credit, which is pushing people into poverty, debt and arrears.
“Labour has long called for a pause and fix of this programme, but the chancellor failed to act in the budget, meaning thousands of families will face a miserable Christmas.”
Abrahams said the government had already been given the opportunity to abide by the information commissioner’s ruling. “The government is now once again riding roughshod over the democratic process,” she said, saying it was “vital that lessons are learned from this government’s mismanagement”.
Abrahams said Labour wanted the scheme to work but it needed to meet its original ambitions of simplifying a complex welfare system without leaving families worse off.
Labour and some Conservative MPs have repeatedly voiced concern about the long wait faced by fresh claimants to be paid benefits once they apply for universal credit, originally six weeks but reduced to five in last month’s budget.
The Department for Work and Pensions has said no claimant needed to wait that long without funds, saying emergency payments to cover the period can be requested and received within three days and paid back over 12 months.
