Universal Credit poised to get Budget U-turn as ‘woeful’ support tips families ‘over the edge’ – and homelessness soars

Tory MPs united today to demand a Universal Credit U-turn after a report warned “woeful” support for the benefit risks tipping families “over the edge”.

Pressure has mounted on Chancellor Philip Hammond to announce more cash in tomorrow’s Budget after a triple whammy of warnings about the six-in-one benefit.

More than 20 Tory backbenchers launched a last-ditch plea to raise the “work allowance” – the amount people can earn before their benefits are cut off.

They urged the Chancellor to cut the five-week wait for payment, writing: “Expecting families with nothing to wait for five weeks does not fit with Conservative values.”

Meanwhile Parliament’s cross-party Work and Pensions Committee warned the ‘Universal Support’ scheme – which is offered to claimants transferring to UC – was “woefully inadequate” and risked undermining the whole project.

And finally, research by the Observer today found welfare reforms are fuelling a rise in homelessness.

Mr Hammond today hinted at more cash for the benefit in tomorrow’s Budget, telling Sky News: “Well we continue to look at how this process is working.

“If we find cliff edges and difficulties, frictions in the move from the old benefits system to Universal Credit then of course will always try to smooth those out and be pragmatic about it.”

He also told the BBC: “My aspiration would be to try to smooth this process.

“I’m prepared to look at this from a very pragmatic point of view.”

Tory Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss added: “We are listening very carefully to what our colleagues have to say… we want this system to work.”

But helping people who move from the old system will do nothing to ease the pain of 3million new claimants who are set to be on UC by December 2019.

Asked if people will be £200 a month worse off – as Tory welfare chief Esther McVey admitted – Mr Hammond said sheepishly: “I would hope not.”

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell accused Mr Hammond of “callous complacency” and demanded he halt the rollout entirely – or face having his Budget voted down.

The Labour figure said: “I’m saying to other political parties that if he doesn’t halt the roll-out of Universal Credit we’ve got to vote this Budget down, we’ve got to stop him forcing people into poverty in this way.”

Universal Credit will come forward for a separate Commons vote in the coming months – and one Tory MP suggested she could vote it down.

Justine Greening told Sky News: “I think it’s going to be hard for many of us who are concerned about how this will play out in our local communities to support it without the changes it needs to be successful.”

In a report today, the Work and Pensions Committee said the DWP’s system of ” universal support” which is supposed to help claimants adapt to UC fell far short of what was needed.

Vulnerable people need more than the current single two-hour session of “personal budgeting and digital skill support”, MPs said.

Committee chairman Frank Field said: “Universal support is not ‘universal’, and it hasn’t been offering much in the way of support.

“DWP must not push one more claimant on to Universal Credit until it can show that it will not push them over the edge.”

Meanwhile a homeless shelter told The Observer Universal Credit was a factor in a third of its clients ending up in its care.

Annie Welling of the Sea View homeless charity in Hastings added: “We’ve seen a sharp increase in street homelessness.

“In the first three months of this year we verified 120 different individuals.

“On any given day we’re seeing 49 people rough sleeping now. Last year it was more like 40.”

It comes just days after MPs on the Commons Public Accounts Committee accused the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) of turning a “deaf ear” to the concerns of claimants facing “unacceptable” levels of hardship.

Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey insisted the system – which is intended to ensure work always pays – was helping the jobless into employment, but acknowledged there was a need to “adapt and change”.