Universal credit falls five years behind schedule
I was facilitating a Community Led Local Development discussion recently and was made aware of the number of additional flexibilities Universal Credit offers for those entering experimental or temporary work opportunities linked to wider employability strategies. I started to wonder notwithstanding the article below if there really is more to UC than just cutting people’s benefits….
The government’s universal credit scheme has once again slipped behind schedule and will now not be completed until 2022, five years behind its original projected finish date, officials have admitted.
Critics said the latest rescheduling – which adds 12 months to the last published planned completion date and is the seventh reset since 2013 – raised the question of whether the much-criticised welfare programme was fit for purpose.
Ironically, the delay will have the effect of providing temporary respite for millions of claimants who stood to lose thousands of pounds a year when they were removed across to universal credit from the tax credits system after July 2018.
Around 2.5 million families currently receiving working tax credits will be between £41 and £46 a week worse off under UC as a result of cuts introduced last year by the former chancellor, George Osborne, according to estimates by the Resolution Foundation thinktank.