The newly-appointed Work and Pensions Secretary has signalled that he will not cancel the Government’s flagship Universal Credit welfare reform plan.
In his first speech in the role Stephen Crabb said he as “committed” to the plan, which was the pet project of his predecessor Iain Duncan Smith.
Mr Duncan Smith stepped down in March after the most recent Budget, warning that the Government was balancing its books on the back of society’s most vulnerable with cuts to welfare.
Universal Credit, which seeks to integrate most welfare benefits into a single payment and reduce disincentives for people to move into work, has been the target of steep cuts by the Chancellor George Osborne.
Among elements slashed before it has been rolled out include work allowances and in-work benefits set to replace tax credits.
The programme has also been beset by delays, with the Government’s Major Projects Authority watchdog treating it as an all-new project in 2014 after a “reset”.
This status come despite it having been announced at Tory conference in 2010 and legislated for in the 2012 Welfare Reform Act.
£40 million spending on IT for the project was also completely written off in 2013 after it emerged that work and had been unsuitable.
Labour says the project risks being “stillborn” because cuts have undermined its stated purpose.
“I am absolutely committed to leading a continued, successful rollout of universal credit,” Mr Crabb said in his speech.
“That is a priority for me, as is continuing to embed it as the spine that runs through the welfare system.”
Mr Crabb’s appointment has been billed as a fresh start for the Government’s controversial welfare policies. In the first week of his appointment cuts to the Personal Independence Payment were cancelled and reconciliatory noises made on other welfare cuts.
Owen Smith, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “Unless he reverses the cuts in the work allowance and restores the work incentives it's going to leave millions of people worse off.”
