Universal Credit hit by fresh delay as 'scared' claimants push roll-out back to 2024
2 min read
The Government's troubled Universal Credit welfare overhaul has been delayed yet again - and now will not be fully up-and-running until 2024.
Ministers confirmed that the timeframe for the scheme, which replaces six existing benefits, had slipped by another nine months amid reluctance from claimants to make the switch.
The move is expected to cost £500m - and means the scheme will now be fully implemented seven years after its original completion date of 2017.
Work and Pensions minister Will Quince said: "Universal Credit is the biggest change to the welfare system in a generation, bringing together six overlapping benefits into one monthly payment and offering support to some of the most vulnerable people in society.
"It is right that we revisit our forecasts and plan, and re-plan accordingly - ensuring that the process is working well for people on benefits.
"Claimants will not lose money due to this forecasting change."
A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "This will result in transitional protection for a further 900,000 people, which will cost around £500 million over the next five years."
The latest delay is the subject of discussion among DWP officials in a BBC documentary on the controversial welfare shake-up.
Neil Couling, the senior Department of Work and Pensions civil servant responsible for the scheme, tells colleagues: "We've got a lot of anecdotal evidence of people being scared to come to Universal Credit.
"It's a potentially serious issue for us, in terms of completing the project by December 2023, but I'm urging people not to panic."
Weeks later, he says: "Three, six or nine months, it doesn't matter - the headline will be: 'Delay, disaster'.
"I would say, 'Go safe, put the claimants first, and I'll take the beating.'"
Labour seized on the latest delay, which it branded "hugely embarrassing" for the Government.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Margaret Greenwood said: "Universal Credit was supposed to be its flagship social security programme.
"Instead we now find that it is being forced to delay the full rollout because the public have so very little faith in it and many are actually afraid of it."
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