Meeting of the Parliament 03 October 2017
Actually, what was mentioned at the Conservative Party conference—believe me, I will get to it—was what we already have. The only new thing that was said was that people will be told up front that they can borrow that money. It is a loan. I will not welcome something as parsimonious as that.
The Tories tell us that universal credit is meant to mirror employment, but who waits six weeks for their first pay packet? How many of us could live without money coming in for six weeks, and how much harder is that if people have children or dependants, rent to pay, food to buy and bills to pay? The approach also ignores the fact that most of those who will receive universal credit when it is rolled out will be in work and will be entitled to the support because they have low wages or hours and they need additional financial help with the costs of children and housing.
In truth, the six-week wait was incorporated in the design of universal credit simply to save the UK Government money. It seeks to save money by imposing a six-week wait on those who can least afford it. The UK Government is saving money with scant regard to all the evidence that its Tory policy plunges people who are already on low incomes into debt, rent arrears and, in some cases, homelessness. More and more people are being forced to rely on food banks and emergency grants.
This is a problem not just in Scotland but across the UK. Frank Field MP, who is chair of the Work and Pensions Committee at Westminster, recently called for a “Christmas truce” on what he described as the “human and political catastrophe” that is the roll-out of universal credit.
Last week, I joined forces with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to again call for a stop to the roll-out of full service universal credit. We presented detailed evidence on the impact that it has on people and local authorities, which is frankly staggering. It shows that, in East Lothian—one of the first areas in Scotland to go live with full service universal credit—average rent arrears for tenants who are in receipt of the benefit are £1,022, compared with £390 for those who are in receipt of housing benefit. That is almost three times higher. All of that makes it difficult for tenants to find and keep a home. Those rent arrears not only bring worry and hardship to tenants but pose real problems for social landlords who are looking to invest in the further house building that we need.
For the four local authorities in Scotland where the full service is in place, administration costs have risen in total to over £830,000. No local authority should have to cover from its own budget for the failings of a UK Government. Time and again, the UK Government shirks its responsibilities and expects others to pick up the pieces. This is its mess and it should own it and fix it.
As the Labour amendment highlights, universal credit is not only flawed in policy. It is also overly complicated in its application, it carries a high risk of administrative errors and it is digitally exclusive, thus disadvantaging many. However, in the face of the evidence from national and local government, third sector organisations, the Church of Scotland and others both north and south of the border, the UK Government is still refusing to pause and fix the system.
What action has the current Secretary of State for Work and Pensions taken to address the major concerns about debt and crisis, which are highlighted even by his own MPs? He will refresh guidance so that advance payments are offered up front. The very fact of saying as little as that is to acknowledge that the minimum six-week wait creates hardship. What he has said is so very little and so very late.
Where he has failed, let us see whether the Prime Minister will take action. If she wants to support the “just about managing”, as she describes them, a clear and simple step that she can take is to halt the roll-out of universal credit. She should not propose advance payments, which are loans to be repaid over timeframes that simply continue the problems; instead, she should get her Government to fix the broken system that it created, which pushes people way beyond “just about managing” and straight into suffering and hardship. The Government should stop forcing people to make decisions about eating or heating, going to a food bank, getting a crisis payment and wondering whether they can feed their children and keep a roof over their head.
In its actions and its failure to act, the UK Government is not only heartless; it is incompetent. There was widespread support for simplifying an overcomplicated benefits system, but that support declined as the cracks in the system were highlighted in the pilot areas, and it was squandered by a Government that refused to take steps to fix those problems. As early as 2013, the National Audit Office identified serious weaknesses in the handling of the issue by the Department for Work and Pensions, citing poor governance, poor management and poor financial control.
In 2014, the universal credit pilots highlighted problems with monthly payments and removing direct payments of rent to landlords. All of that was ignored. The Scottish Government will use our very limited powers over how universal credit is paid to address that for new claimants, starting tomorrow. However, it is clear that that should and could have been fixed from the very start.