Universal Credit

Universal Credit (UC) is the biggest and most fundamental reform to the welfare state since its creation. It is a modern benefit based on the sound principles that work should always pay and those who need support receive it. In 2010, the welfare bill cost each household £8,350, an increase of nearly £3,000 per household since 1997. Not only was this system failing to reward work, but it was the taxpayer bearing the burden.
 
I believe that UC protects vulnerable claimants and ensures that work always pays. It is a simpler, more accurate benefit which is based on up-to-date information that will provide people with their full entitlement. This means that 700,000 people will receive on average an extra £285 per month which they have not received under the existing system. Furthermore, almost one million disabled claimants will gain on average £100 a month through UC because their award is higher through UC than legacy benefits. 
 
UC will also help 200,000 more people into work when fully rolled out and empower people to work an extra 113 million hours a year. You might be interested to know that people on UC spend around 50 per cent more time looking for a job than they did under Jobseeker's Allowance. Indeed, we have seen over 3.3 million people move into work since 2010 and youth unemployment has fallen by almost 50 per cent.
 
In the budget of 2018, the Chancellor announced a £4.5 billion package for UC, which will make a real difference to the lives of claimants across the country. An extra £1.7 billion a year will be put into work allowances, increasing the amount that hardworking families can earn by £1,000 before their award is tapered away, providing extra support for 2.4 million working families.
This is in addition to a £1 billion package of changes, providing two additional weeks of legacy benefits for those moved onto UC, a twelve-month grace period before the Minimum Income Floor is applied and a reduction of the normal maximum rate at which debts are deducted from UC awards, from 40 per cent to 30 per cent of Standard Allowances.
 
Rightly for a programme of this scale, the priority continues to be its safe and secure delivery. The controlled expansion of UC started in April 2013 and I am pleased that significant progress has been made to date, with the Government responding to a number of legitimate concerns which were raised throughout the process.