Universal Credit set to be rolled out to 90 Job Centres
20/06/2014
Universal Credit is set to be rolled out across 90 jobcentres in the north-west of England, according to work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith.
The government’s flagship welfare policy is currently in place at just 10 job centres in the UK, however, a gradual roll out will now be implemented as early as next week, after being delayed several times.
Initially, the roll out will only affect single claimants, but couples and families will also join at a later stage – once the system has been successfully implemented.
Universal Credit is essentially a scheme that will merge working-age benefits together into one single payment, with the aim of encouraging people back to work and reducing benefit fraud.
The benefits that will be merged are: income-based jobseeker’s allowance, income-related employment and support allowance, income support, child tax credit, working tax credit and housing benefit.
Improvements
Mr Duncan Smith said the reason it will only be rolled out to single people to start with is because that’s who the system has been tested on.
He went on to praise the Universal Credit system as it will “improve the quality of service for people” and also “improve their chances of getting back to work”.
He finished by confirming that there is no chance of the system being scrapped, despite numerous delays in confirming its implementation.
There are some that have slated the changes, as one committee of MPs described the changes as “nothing short of a fiasco”.
The Public Accounts Committee claimed that the delays to assessing claimants for the new disability benefits have resulted in the government letting down some of the “most vulnerable in society”.
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