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A small reduction in the controversial six-week wait for Universal Credit payments will do little to solve the “crisis” facing claimants, Ministers have been warned.

Chancellor Philip Hammond is set to announce the wait will be cut to five weeks or less, according to reports.

And Mr Hammond hinted the Government was set to make changes, saying: “We are listening to the concerns people have, this is a new programme and as we roll it out we want to learn and we want to improve the rollout.”

But North West Durham MP Laura Pidcock, one of the first politicians to highlight the problems caused by Universal Credit, said: “I don’t think that will help anyone.

“Frankly it will be one less week of pain. But but the issue with Universal Credit is so much more than the wait period.”

(Image: PA)

Critics say claimants are falling into debt because of the long delay before their first payment, and the Department for Work and Pensions has launched an inquiry into whether Universal Credit is causing rent arrears.

Ms Pidcock said: “I would argue that any more than two weeks wait is consigning people to crisis.”

But she said there were a range of other problems with the scheme, including the way that people are supposed to track their claims online, posing obvious challenges for people without internet access, and the difficulties claimants face getting help and advice.

“There is a fundamental crisis with the system,” she said.

Universal Credit is being rolled out across the country in stages, and will be fully introduced in December at four Durham job centres including Bishop Auckland job centre plus (JCP), Consett JCP, Crook JCP and Stanley JCP.

It replaces a range of existing benefits including housing benefit.

The Government says Universal Credit helps people into work. It is designed partly to make the benefits system less complex, and to ensure people are actually better off when they work.

Labour has highlighted the case of a Grimsby landlord which sent letters to 350 tenants warning they could be evicted if they failed to keep up with rent payments once Universal Credit is introduced.

(Image: PA)

Letting agent GAP Property informed tenants that they may be evicted due to potential rent arrears caused by the switch to Universal Credit in North East Lincolnshire on December 13.

Guy Piggott, who owns the Grimsby firm, said he did not “intend to cause alarm” with the letter but wanted tenants to “save money” in advance of the switch.

With the roll out of Universal Credit, claimants have been told to expect a six-week wait for the first payment - something Mr Piggott claims could force his business to close.

Mr Piggott, speaking to the Press Association, said: “It’s a really poor place where I live, the average take home pay is about £17,000 a year.

“A lot of people are on benefits and they are going to be really affected when Universal Credit is introduced next month.

“Many don’t realise that their benefits will be stopped for six weeks and that is the minimum, it could be longer than that.”

“We are not evicting people in February, people don’t realise that it takes at least two months to go through the courts with an

The UK’s four Children’s Commissioners have all called for a pause in the Universal Credit roll out.

In a direct plea to the Chancellor, they said a pause was “essential” to prevent hundreds of thousands more children experiencing poverty and warned families are finding it hard to afford basics such as food and heating.

The commissioners for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland wrote to Mr Hammond ahead of next week’s Budget to say: “It has become clear that the absence of income for a number of weeks while Universal Credit payments are authorised and implemented presents an almost impossible challenge to the ability of families to provide basics such as food and heating to themselves and their children.”