The chairman of the parliamentary committee investigating the rollout of universal credit has accused the government of withholding “bad news” over the faltering progress of its flagship welfare changes.

Frank Field said he suspected that ministers had only pressed ahead with the accelerated rollout of universal credit this month because civil servants at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had withheld the true scale of the problems.

The MP says that despite evidence of mounting problems with universal credit, the DWP has yet to provide new written evidence to the work and pensions committee, and has so far refused to answer four formal letters requesting statistics and clarifications of policy sent to David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, over the past six weeks.

Quick guide What is universal credit and what are the problems? Show Hide What is universal credit? Universal credit (UC) is the supposed flagship reform of the benefits system, rolling together six benefits into one, online-only system. The theoretical aim, for which there was general support across the political spectrum, was to simplify the system and increase the incentives for people to move off benefits into work. About 2 million people are currently in receipt of UC. More than 6 million will be on the benefit by the time it is fully rolled out. How long has it been around? The project was legislated for in 2011 under the auspices of its most vocal champion, Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith. The plan was to roll it out by 2017. However, a series of management failures, expensive IT blunders and design faults mean it is now seven years behind schedule, and rollout will not be complete until 2024. The government admitted that the delay was caused in part by claimants being too scared to sign up to the new benefit. What is the biggest problem? The original design set out a minimum 42-day wait for a first payment to claimants when they moved to UC (in practice this is often up to 60 days). After sustained pressure, the government announced in the autumn 2017 budget that the wait would be reduced to 35 days from February 2018. This will partially mitigate the impact on many claimants of having no income for six weeks. The wait has led to rent arrears and evictions, hunger (food banks in UC areas report notable increases in referrals), use of expensive credit and mental distress. Ministers have expanded the availability of hardship loans (now repayable over a year) to help new claimants while they wait for payment. Housing benefit will now continue for an extra two weeks after the start of a UC claim. However, critics say the five-week wait is still too long and want it reduced to two or three weeks. Are there other problems? Plenty. Multibillion-pound cuts to work allowances imposed by the former chancellor George Osborne mean UC is far less generous than originally envisaged. According to the Resolution Foundation thinktank, about 2.5m low-income working households will be more than £1,000 a year worse off when they move to UC, reducing work incentives.

Landlords are worried that the level of rent arrears accrued by tenants on UC could lead to a rise in evictions. It's also not very user-friendly: claimants complain the system is complex, unreliable and difficult to manage, particularly if you have no internet access.

And there is concern that UC cannot deliver key promises: a critical study found it does not deliver savings, cannot prove it gets more people into work, and has plunged vulnerable claimants into hardship.

Field said: “For the secretary of state not to answer letters shows either a huge discourtesy to parliament or a sign that the government knows the game is nearly up in trying to present this mega-reform as a success.



“I don’t know if the DWP is deliberately concealing information about universal credit or is simply incompetent. Either way, it is not good enough. This has obvious echoes in the far greater failure of not paying hungry claimants on time.

“One letter simply asked if the conference announcement on advance payments was, despite appearances, simply a restatement of existing policy. You’d think they could at least answer that one.”

Field’s comments come as Gauke prepares for a potentially uncomfortable appearance before the inquiry committee on Wednesday morning, just hours before an Labour opposition day debate calling for the accelerated rollout to be paused.

The work and pensions committee inquiry was launched last month amid mounting concern – including on the government backbenches – that flaws in the design and implementation of universal credit, which was meant to streamline and simplify the benefits system, is causing confusion and chaos for many claimants and landlords.

The committee has since received over 100 evidence submissions on universal credit from claimants, landlords, councils and charities. Of those so far published on the inquiry website, almost all report major problems, with consequences for claimants ranging from debt and rent arrears to mental distress and hunger.

Field said: “Given everything we have heard, I was surprised that David Gauke opted to proceed with the accelerated rollout. I strongly suspect his decision, together with the failure to tell us anything, reflects a culture at the DWP of those most invested in universal credit not telling anyone, including their ministers, bad news.

“The overwhelming picture we are getting is that universal credit as currently configured is very bad news. We have heard nothing, to the contrary or otherwise, from those running it.”



Earlier this month Gauke delivered an upbeat assessment of universal credit in his speech to Tory party conference in Manchester. He rejected calls for the rollout to be paused, calling the changes a step towards a Tory vision of the modern welfare state that was “compassionate, practical and aspirational”.

Liverpool city council said local authorities were moving into “dangerous and uncharted waters” as the cost of supporting increasing numbers of low-income residents plunged into financial crisis by long waits for universal credit payments became unsustainable.

In evidence to the work and pensions committee inquiry it said: “Given the growing pressures caused by the government’s multiple welfare reforms and the additional hardship resultant from UC [universal credit], the ability of the council and its partners to support those most affected and protect vulnerable households is not likely to be affordable for much longer, or ultimately sustainable.

“We, along with many other local authorities, are now in what I consider to be ‘dangerous and unchartered waters’.”

A DWP spokesman said: “We are fully engaged with the work and pensions select committee. The secretary of state recently met its chairman and will be appearing before it this week. Meanwhile, committee members have taken up our invitation to visit a jobcentre to see how universal credit works for themselves.

“The department also published a raft of research and analysis of universal credit, following requests from the work and pensions select committee, five weeks ago. This included evidence showing that the vast majority of people are paid on time and in full, and that people are moving into work faster than under the old system.”