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The Tory government has been reported to the advertising watchdog for making "deeply misleading" claims about Universal Credit.

A radio ad boasts the six-in-one benefit "changes automatically" if your wages change, "giving you one less thing to worry about".

But Labour MP Neil Coyle, who sits on the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, said the claim is "simply untrue".

He said struggling families must update online 'journals' and thousands have reported glitches in the way UC calculates their wages - driving them into debt and to food banks.

Employers must update the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), he added - and many fail to, harming people's payments months down the line.

Mr Coyle has written to the new Tory welfare chief Amber Rudd and the Advertising Standards Authority calling for the "wildly inaccurate" ad to be withdrawn.

His ASA complaint said: "The DWP radio ad ignores the reality of the problem and is deeply misleading with potentially disastrous consequences for thousands of people and their families.

"I do not think DWP should be able to continue making such a misleading claim and hope the ASA can prevent the ad being broadcast."

Writing to Ms Rudd he added: "I am concerned that the Department is attempting to ‘spin’ Universal Credit, rather than recognise and address the very serious problems within the system before it is pushed onto thousands more people."

(Image: NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Sign our Universal Credit petition The Mirror are demanding a halt to the expansion of Universal Credit and for a review to take place. We say there are three options: Redesign UC to be fit for purpose

Axe it in favour of the old system if UC is unfixable

Introduce a brand new system Sign our petition to stop the rollout of Universal Credit across Britain and to replace it with a fairer system by signing our petition.

A record 140,000 people were put on Universal Credit in October, latest figures show.

The benefit, which combines traditional welfare systems into one monthly payment, is now paid to 1.3million people and is expected to cover 3million by December 2019.

Tory ministers have poured £1.7bn a year into the benefit and slowed down the "migration" of existing claimants.

What is Universal Credit? A single system replacing six benefits: Child and Working Tax Credits, Housing Benefits, Income Support, Jobseekers’ Allowance, and Employment and Support Allowance. It was launched in 2013 as the pet project of Tory Iain Duncan Smith supposedly to make work pay. Who claims it? Low earners, those out of work and the sick or disabled. Already 610,000 people are on UC - 8% of benefit claimants. It is being rolled out to individual Jobcentres including 52 in October 2017. What are the problems? Debt-ridden claimants must wait six weeks (five from early 2018) for their first payment, with 19% waiting longer than that and 4% waiting ten weeks in late 2017. Research also suggests overall, UC leaves many working families worse off than the old system. That is because payments taper away at 63p for every £1 claimants earn. The timetable has also been put back nine times since 2013 after a string of glitches and will only be fully complete in late 2022.

But anyone whose circumstances change is moved onto UC immediately - with no transition payments.

Labour and the Daily Mirror are calling for the rollout to be halted until problems in the system are fixed. Sign our petition at mirror.co.uk/stopuniversalcredit.

A DWP spokesperson said: "If a claimant’s wages change then their Universal Credit payment will automatically adjust to reflect this.

"Our radio adverts are accurate, and demonstrate the numerous ways Universal Credit is a better benefit than the old system."