Universal Credit Reform - Conservative Party policy

By Will Candy, L6

A complex reform, but a useful example for G & P students, of Parliamentary Committees and their influence.

What is it?

Universal Credit is a new welfare benefit in the United Kingdom that will replace six of the main means-tested benefits and tax credits. The Government plans to introduce the Universal Credit over the period 2013 to 2017.

The Universal Credit was introduced by Iain Duncan Smith and announced at the conference of the Conservative Party in 2010.The coalition aimed to implement it fully over four years and two parliaments, intending to cut costs.

Unlike some existing benefits, such as Income Support, that have a 100% withdrawal rate, the Universal Credit will be gradually tapered away, like tax credits and Housing Benefit so that, in theory, people can take a part-time job and still be allowed to keep most of the money they receive.

How has the Media taken to it?

In practice, however, large scale criticism from the mainstream media, including Conservative-leaning press, has pointed out that part-time work will no longer pay, and people will be better off refusing it. The new system will also ensure that self-employment is no longer a viable option for vast swathes of the population due to the "Minimum Income Floor" provision.

The scheme Being Delayed

The whole scheme was due to begin nationally in October 2013 for new claimants (but again, excluding more complex cases such as families with children), with a gradual transition to be complete by 2017. However, there is actually no chance of it proceeding according to that schedule. One tester of the system in April 2013 noted that the online forms took around 45 minutes to complete, and that there was no save function.

This is the Telegraph's take on the delay.

Criticism

Professor John Seddon started a campaign for an alternative way to deliver Universal Credit on 24 January 2011 after speaking at a conference alongside a representative from the DWP.

John Seddon makes the case that you can't deliver high-variety services through 'cheaper' transaction channels.

He argues that instead this will drive the costs up. John Seddon wrote an open letter to Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud as the start of a campaign to call a halt to the current plans and, instead, to embark on a better (systems) approach.

The Labour Party has also criticised the reform, as has former Prime Minister John Major, who described Ian Duncan Smith this way:

Unless Iain Duncan Smith is very lucky, which he may not be, or a genius, which is unproven, he may get some of it wrong.

Perhaps most importantly, the National Audit Office, a parliamentary body independent of government and which ultimately reports the influencial Public Accounts Committee, criticised the Universal Credit Reform as explained here, and a different account of the same thing can be found here. This YouTube video suggests that Ian Duncan Smith has lost all control over the reforms: