Universal credit: Theresa May 'should back 拢2bn extra funding for welfare', says Iain Duncan Smith
Theresa May and Chancellor Philip Hammond have been coming under pressure to increase funding for universal credit.
Tuesday 16 April 2019 11:15, UK
Iain Duncan Smith has called on Theresa May to back 拢2bn extra funding for welfare in the upcoming budget.
The prime minister and Chancellor Philip Hammond have been coming under pressure to increase funding for universal credit after it was revealed that some people would be worse off under the troubled scheme.
Mr Duncan Smith, who was the architect of the system, told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday that topping up funding was the best way of reaching the "just about managing" Mrs May promised she would help.
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He said: "Theresa May stood on the steps of Downing Street and said I want to look after those who are just about managing.
"Universal credit is the single best system to get to those who are just about managing.
"It's better than the tax system, it's better than charitable giveaways - it gets the money to that bottom four deciles in a way no other system does."
Mr Duncan Smith quit his role as work and pensions secretary in 2016 over billions being cut from the benefits scheme.
The former Tory leader said Mr Hammond - who will reveal details of the government's budget on 29 October - needed to prioritise welfare payments over tax cuts if he wanted to help the poorest.
"The key thing is the structure works but we need to put the money in," Mr Duncan Smith said.
"I think this government is listening, I think the chancellor is listening and I'm asking him to do that.
"If we do that and get the money back to where it should be the reality is nobody should lose at all."
Mr Duncan Smith also defended the controversial decision to pay universal credits one month in arrears, saying it would identify those who could not cope.
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He said: "If you are not capable of coping with that then you're going to go into a job and crash out quite quickly.
"Universal credit will identify that minority of people who will not be able to move into work with those problems and then try and resolve them."
Universal credit was launched in 2013 as a single-monthly benefit for people in or out of work.
It merged into one payment six other benefits; income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance, income-related employment and support allowance, housing benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit.
Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey reportedly told colleagues last week that families could be £2,400 a year - £200 a month - worse off on universal credit.
Shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti told Sophy Ridge that universal credit was now a "toxic brand" and it would be "very hard to rebuild trust in it".
"The theoretical idea that you can have one simple benefit rather than people having to apply for lots of benefits always appealed to me in theory," she said.
"The problem with universal credit now is, under this government, it is being used to cut people's benefits - to penalise people for having too many children, to penalise the disabled and other vulnerable people.
"The notion of a simpler benefits system - great idea, but not if you are adding austerity to it."