In an article from the New Statesman, new figures show just 2,150 are claiming Universal Credit, leaving the government 997,850 short of its original target of one million.
Three and a half years after Iain Duncan Smith took the reins at the Department for Work and Pensions, how many people are claiming Universal Credit?
The answer, as revealed by the DWP in its report, is just 2,150. That leaves Duncan Smith 997,850 claimants short of meeting his original April 2014 target of one million (since downgraded to 184,000, a target that will also not be met).{jcomments on}
Universal Credit which was initially due to apply to all new claimants of out of work benefits from October 2013, is currently only available in seven 'pathfinder' sites: Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, Warrington, Wigan, Hammersmith, Rugby and Inverness (the stats refer to the first four).
Ministers are trumpeting the finding that 90% of people claimed their benefits online after earlier warnings that the system would prove too complicated. But it's worth noting that the only group of claimants currently included are single, non-home owning, non-disabled, childless people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.
As Labour MP Glenda Jackson noted at a recent work and pensions select committee hearing, "The people you are actually testing are a small number, the simplest of cases. How on earth are you going to achieve the evidence that you keep telling us you are going to learn from when the cohort is so narrow and so simple?"
It was in September that the National Audit Office warned that "throughout the programme the Department has lacked a detailed view of how Universal Credit is meant to work", that the 2017 national roll-out date is in serious doubt, that the department "has not achieved value for money", with £34m of IT programmes written off, that the current IT system "lacks the ability to identify potentially fraudulent claims" and that the DWP repeatedly ignored warnings about the viability of the project.
In a statement to the New Statesman by the DWP:
"The early rollout of Universal Credit was always designed to start with small volumes of claimants in line with our determination to bring in the new benefit safely and responsibly.
This figure only includes claimants to the end of September. Since then three other areas – Hammersmith, Rugby and Inverness – have gone live, nearly doubling the size of the Universal Credit roll out and we expect claimant numbers to increase as a result."
In a further study measuring the attitudes and experiences of claimants towards Universal Credit, it appears that, despite 78% of claimants stating they felt confident that they could manage monthly payments, a considerable number needed to borrow money whilst waiting for their benefit.
Read the full blog from the New Statesman here
Our thanks to Pre-Raphaelite Sister for spotting this article for us
