Politics

Universal Credit now seven years late

Published

6 years ago

February 10, 2020

Iain Duncan Smith: Former Cabinet member responsible for welfare farce

THE ROLLOUT of Universal Credit has been delayed again to 2024.
Over seven years after it was originally supposed to be implemented in full and over a decade after it was first piloted, the scheme has lurched from crisis to crisis in its troubled history.
Universal Credit merges six existing benefits, including housing benefit and child tax credits, into one monthly sum.
The government’s stated aim is to simplify the welfare system, both to help claimants, cut fraud, and encourage work. However, its ultimate effect has been to slash welfare payments to the most vulnerable and plunge claimants into debt as they wait for their first payment of the new benefit.
The fresh delay, to September 2024, was uncovered in an upcoming BBC documentary about the government’s contentious welfare reform. It will add an estimated £500m to the Universal Credit programme, which is already billions over budget.
The delay has arisen because fewer people than expected had signed up to the new system, according to a new BBC documentary, Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State.
In an excerpt released by the BBC, Neil Couling, the DWP’s director-general for Universal Credit said, in August last year: “We’ve had a lot of anecdotal evidence of people being scared to come to Universal Credit.
“It’s a potentially serious issue for us, in terms of completing the project by December 2023, but I’m urging people not to panic,” he said.
Mr Coulting continues in a subsequent meeting to say: “Three, six or nine months, it doesn’t matter – the headline will be: ‘Delay, disaster’.
“I would say, ‘Go safe, put the claimants first, and I’ll take the beating.'”
This week, the DWP admitted the delay was necessary because the number of people who had moved on to UC was lower than official estimates.
The BBC documentary shows the DWP acknowledging that the reason for the lower-than-expected uptake was the fear that new Universal Credit claimants would lose out.
Gross and ongoing delays in making benefit awards on the new system have plunged people into debt recouped from their benefits due to the waiting period for its first payment imposed by the UK Government.
Universal credit was phased in during 2013.
The benefit was first due for full rollout by April 2017. However, transferring claimants to the new system has been plagued by a series of technical delays. Those delays include a fiasco over IT infrastructure and the failure of the system to account for varying incomes for the self-employed and those employed on casual or zero-hour contracts.
Last week, the UK Government lost a major case on the benefit’s rollout.
In a decision handed down in the Court of Appeal by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Singh, the court ruled transitional provisions relating to the treatment of disabled persons were discriminatory. It found that a severely disabled person who moved from an area where UC had not been rolled out to an area in which it had would be treated less favourably than a person who did not move. In a second case, the court quashed provisions meaning those who migrated ‘naturally’ from Severe Disability Premium to Universal Credit less favourably than those who made the transition under the managed migration scheme.
Last year, former DWP Secretary Amber Rudd said that payment delays of Universal Credit were ‘the main issue’ leading to dependence on foodbanks.
The delay’s announcement follows the publication of a report by the Resolution Foundation
The report notes that the final – and most challenging – phase of the roll-out, involving the transfer of existing benefit and tax credit claimants onto UC, is due to start later this year.
The Foundation states that a marginal average increase of a whacking £1 a week for some claimants ‘masks sizeable groups of families that lose out by large sums, and significant geographical variation across the UK. Thanks to factors such as local rent and earnings levels, and the characteristics of local populations, some parts of the country will be left significantly worse off as the switch to UC goes ahead’.
In areas with a relatively high proportion of single parents, out-of-work single people and disabled people, all of whom fare badly under UC, claimants lose out. Also, while Universal Credit favours working families with high rents, it hits those in areas with below-average rent levels.
The Foundation adds that policymakers in Whitehall, and across the UK, need to consider the impact of Universal Credit at a local level. At exactly the time that policy debates are rightly focusing on what can be done to close economic gaps between parts of the UK, this major welfare reform will be rolled out with very different impacts on those places.
Laura Gardiner, Research Director at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Welcome recent reforms mean that Universal Credit is now set to be marginally more generous than the benefits it is replacing. But this average hides a complex mix of winners and losers, with families in some areas of the UK faring particularly badly.
“As well as making reforms at a national level – such as helping families to overcome the first payment hurdle and offering more flexibility for those with childcare – policymakers across the country need to better understand the effect Universal Credit will have in different places. That understanding should be central to policy debates that are rightly focusing on what can be done to close economic gaps between parts of the UK.”
Welfare minister Will Quince said: “Universal Credit is the biggest change to the welfare system in a generation, bringing together six overlapping benefits into one monthly payment and offering support to some of the most vulnerable people in society.
“It is right that we revisit our forecasts and plan, and re-plan accordingly – ensuring that the process is working well for people on benefits.
“Claimants will not lose money due to this forecasting change.”

News

Welsh Government urged to honour Senedd vote on school support staff pay body

Published

11 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Tom Sinclair

WELSH LABOUR has called on the Plaid Cymru Government to set out whether it will act on a Senedd vote backing the creation of a new negotiating body for school support staff.

The proposed School Support Staff Negotiating Body would provide a national forum for discussing pay, terms and conditions for workers such as teaching assistants, caretakers, cleaners, cooks, administrative staff and lunchtime supervisors.

Supporters say the body is needed to address long-standing inconsistencies in pay and conditions across Wales, including concerns over term-time-only contracts, limited career progression and the lack of a dedicated national bargaining structure for non-teaching school staff.

The issue was raised in the Senedd by Welsh Labour’s Huw Thomas following the passing of an Opposition Day motion last week. The motion, tabled by Labour, secured cross-party support and called for progress on establishing a Welsh SSSNB.

During questions to the Cabinet Minister for Effectiveness and the Constitution, Mr Thomas pressed the Welsh Government on whether work had begun on legislation.

He asked: “Can you confirm that as the Cabinet Minister responsible for the legislative agenda, you are respecting the Senedd’s wishes and have begun preparing legislation for a School Support Staff Negotiating Body?”

Welsh Labour says the proposal would bring Wales into line with England, where legislation has already been taken forward to create a School Support Staff Negotiating Body for workers in state-funded schools.

The policy was also a Welsh Labour manifesto pledge and has been backed by trade unions including UNISON and GMB, which have campaigned for better recognition, fairer pay and clearer career structures for school support staff.

Labour argues that support staff play a vital role in the day-to-day running of schools and in supporting pupils’ learning, wellbeing and safety, but that their pay and conditions have not always reflected the importance of their work.

Mr Thomas, Welsh Labour’s spokesperson for Finance, Democracy, Citizenship and the Welsh Language, also pressed ministers for assurances that manifesto commitments would appear in the Programme for Government in the form originally promised.

Labour said the Plaid Cymru Cabinet Minister declined to give an unambiguous commitment that all manifesto pledges would be carried forward.

However, Opposition Day motions passed by the Senedd do not in themselves create legislation. They place political pressure on ministers to respond, but the Welsh Government is not automatically required to introduce a Bill.

Any new negotiating body would also require detailed work on funding, the role of local authorities, union representation, school budgets and how national terms would interact with existing council and school employment arrangements.

Welsh Labour says ministers must now provide a timetable for legislation and explain how they intend to work with unions, councils, schools and support staff on the creation of the body.

News

Plaid accused of sending mixed messages over school phone ban

Published

11 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Tom Sinclair

PLANS for new guidance on mobile phone use in Welsh schools have sparked a political row, after Labour accused Plaid Cymru of sending mixed messages over whether phones could be banned during the school day.

Education Minister Anna Brychan has announced that the Welsh Government will bring forward guidance aimed at restricting pupils’ use of mobile phones in schools.

The guidance is expected to set out what schools should consider when managing phone use, amid growing concern about distraction in classrooms, behaviour, social media use, and the impact of smartphones on pupils’ wellbeing.

The move could lead to tighter rules across Wales, although the question of whether there should be a national ban — or whether individual schools should retain flexibility — remains politically sensitive.

Welsh Labour said schools needed clarity, claiming the guidance had originally been commissioned while Labour was in government.

A Welsh Labour spokesperson said: “Schools need clear guidance on what is expected of them when it comes to the use of mobile phones. We commissioned this guidance when we were in government.

“Just a few weeks ago the First Minister seemed to rule out banning phones in schools, but today the Education Minister has been clear that could still be an option. Schools need clarity.

“What’s important is that schools and unions are engaged with and the school workforce is supported in these decisions.”

The row comes as ministers face pressure to address the growing role of smartphones in young people’s lives, both inside and outside school.

Supporters of tougher restrictions argue that phones are a major source of distraction and can contribute to bullying, anxiety and poor concentration.

Others have warned that schools need clear, practical rules that staff can enforce, with proper engagement with teachers, unions, pupils and parents.

The debate now centres on whether Wales should move towards a national ban, or leave individual schools to decide how far restrictions should go.

Politics

Housing, refugees, and veterans dominate First Minister’s Questions

Published

13 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Ella Groves, ICNN Senedd Reporter

RHUN AP IORWERTH fielded questions on housing shortages, the Armed Forces, and the Nation of Sanctuary as he returned for his third First Minister’s Questions today.

The First Minister defended his new government’s work so far as he faced Senedd colleagues in the Siambr.

The First Minister clashed once again with opposition leader Dan Thomas, this time over the causes of the housing shortage.

Reform’s Welsh leader quizzed his Plaid Cymru counterpart on how the government planned to address Wales’ housing problems.

Mr Thomas said: “It is a fact that a lack of house building and uncontrolled immigration has led to a housing shortage across the UK.”

He welcomed Plaid’s promise to deliver 20,000 new homes by 2030 but said: “To deliver at that scale, we’re going to need radical reform of the planning system, we’re going to need ministerial intervention when councils do not deliver the number of homes that their communities need, and we need government and local government to work in partnership with house builders to leverage the billions of pounds that are needed to deliver 20,000 new homes.”

Acknowledging the “very real” housing problems found across Wales, Mr ap Iorwerth insisted these shortages are not driven by immigration.

He accused Mr Thomas of attempting to “create division”, arguing the government must focus on “practical solutions to the practical problem that we face”.

Mr Thomas said nobody is “blaming immigrants” but instead are “blaming uncontrolled and unplanned immigration”, which he described as having a “ripple effect” across the UK.

The opposition leader also questioned the First Minister on houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) which he described as a “big problem” across Wales, suggesting this too was caused, in part, by “uncontrolled immigration”.

Mr Thomas said HMOs are “changing the character” of streets across Wales and said: “Large companies are buying up family homes and turning them into HMOs, and people are not happy with this.”

Describing Mr Thomas as “again seeking to blame”, the First Minister said: “The leader of the opposition says he’s not blaming immigrants whilst then progressing to blame immigrants for the situation.

“He will have to forgive me for always focusing on the practical answers that are needed to the very real problems that we face, and that is a lack of social housing, which is why this government is getting on with building more social housing.”

The First Minister also clashed with another Reform member – Caerdydd Penarth MS Joe Martin.

Mr Martin questioned Mr ap Iorwerth about the “potential risks to public safety” due to the Nation of Sanctuary scheme.

The scheme, introduced in 2019, sets out how the Welsh Government can support refugees and asylum seekers in Wales.

It includes, but is not limited to: making sure refugees can find new accommodation when they leave asylum accommodation; helping refugee or asylum seeker survivors of domestic abuse to get support; and promoting an understanding of Welsh culture and heritage amongst asylum seekers.

Mr Martin said defenders of the scheme would say that it has primarily been used to support Ukrainian refugees but then added he did not know why it was “necessary” to spend additional money “over and above” what Westminster already spends to help Ukrainian families.

Mr Martin continued: “You won’t find anyone seriously contending that they’re the reason the scheme should be scrapped.

“But that’s because, so far, there have been zero instances of Ukrainian refugees trying to behead people in the streets. The same cannot be said for Sudanese asylum seekers.”

His comments were met with with disapproval from members from other parties.

Noting that it seemed the Siambr would “have to get used to this kind of contribution”, the First Minister accused Mr Martin of attempting “to drive wedges between communities”.

He said: “The Nation of Sanctuary policy did house mostly Ukrainian refugees.

“I understand the difficulty that the member has in addressing that issue given the fact that the former leader of Reform in Wales [Nathan Gill] is currently serving a lengthy jail term for taking money from the Russians, and one of the first calls made by their finance spokesperson was to tear down the Ukraine flag flying outside our Senedd.

“Let’s focus here on what unites us. Let’s focus on the leadership that’s incumbent on all of us to show in order to create cohesion between communities.”

The First Minister also noted that June 16 marks the tenth anniversary of the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox. Mr ap Iorwerth said the Senedd’s focus should be on “finding ways of getting over divisions rather than trying to create them”.

Interim Labour leader, Ken Skates, pressed the First Minister on finances, referring to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which, prior to the election, said Plaid Cymru’s promises would require tax increases or cuts to services.

Mr Skates called on the First Minister to share if the Institute was right and, if necessary, to share what cuts will be made.

Pledging to “roll [their] sleeves up”, Mr ap Iorweth said his government will find “innovative ways” to “deliver what the people of Wales said they wanted us to.”

He also drew attention to the £55 million announced on June 16 to start delivering Plaid’s childcare offer across Wales.

Mr ap Iorwerth added: “We did more in 27 days as a government than the previous Labour administration did in 27 years.”

Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Darren Millar, pressed Mr ap Iorwerth on whether he agreed that a strong defence industry in Wales is “essential” to the economy in a time when “war has returned to Europe”.

Mr Millar also called on the First Minister to pay tribute to the Armed Forces and the Welsh workers who provide them with the resources they need.

Revealing one of his first visits as First Minister was to see Rhondda-based Valley Veterans, Mr ap Iorwerth agreed with the Conservative leader noting the “very important part” the defence sector plays within the Welsh economy.

He added: “I absolutely understand that the changing face of international threats means that we need to make sure that we have the conventional forces in place that are able to stand up to that.

“At the same time, this is a government that will make sure that the ethical engagement around defence is as strong as it can possibly be. I think those are the kinds of assurances that the people of Wales want.”