Dundee West MP Chris Law has raised his concerns that thousands of people affected by a long-running problem with Universal Credit will not benefit from proposed new changes to the system, despite a Court of Appeal judgement earlier this year.
Universal Credit claimants whose regular monthly pay date falls close to the start/end of their Universal Credit assessment period may result in them having two paydays in one assessment period, resulting in significant fluctuations in their income month to month. The Court of Appeal found that this caused “considerable hardship and” perverse incentives” for those affected and criticised the Department of Work and Pensions’ decision to refuse to find a solution as “irrational”.
In a letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mr Law queried the Department for Work and Pensions over their estimate that only 1500 people were affected, when the Court of Appeal heard earlier this year that around 80,000 were estimated to be affected.
Mr Law also pressed the Secretary of State to urgently lay out the DWP’s plans for implementation, given that the DWP has previously stated that their computer systems could not be altered for such a change.
Chris Law MP said:
“I welcome these changes to Universal Credit, which will certainly help some of my constituents, but I do have considerable worries about the implementation of these changes and the numbers claimed by the DWP to be affected.
“We have seen the DWP botch changes in the past, not least the initial roll-out of Universal Credit itself, and I am increasingly concerned that the DWP has only identified around 1500 people affected. This in no way reflects the damning evidence heard by the Court of Appeals earlier this year.
“Having finally recognised that there is an issue, the DWP must ensure that this issue is sorted for everyone affected and ensure that their system and staff are properly ready for these changes to be introduced next month.”
Chris Law 