WELFARE Secretary Pat McFadden has reignited calls for an overhaul of the benefits system – saying Universal Credit is “too easy” for people to be signed off work without help.
The Cabinet Minister took aim at the benefit insisting there is a “design flaw” in the system – with its cost rising from £66 billion to £95 billion by 2031.
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Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden has highlighted a design flaw in Universal Credit Credit: PA
The Universal Credit system was first brought in by Tory grandee Sir Iain Duncan Smith Credit: Alamy
His warning comes as Labour has failed to reduce the welfare bill since it came to power after it faced a backbench rebellion last summer.
It comes after he said “every meeting” he had with Labour MPs is “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others” in messages released relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment.
The Labour stalwart said the system allows individuals to receive support without a guarantee to help find a route into work.
Mr McFadden said: “There is a design flaw in our credit system, which was built into Universal Credit on the way it was designed.
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“Which is that it is too easy for people to be signed off and written off with them receiving no help, no support, and no obligations.”
He said it was built in as a feature insisting it wasn’t a “bug” in the system.
His comment came during a visit to Holland to probe why they have a better employment rate for young people.
A recent review by jobs czar Alan Milburn into youth inactivity revealed that for every £25 spent on welfare support for young people only £1 is spent on employment support.
McFadden insisted that he wasn’t making a party political point as Universal Credit was brought in under the coalition government under Sir Iain Duncan Smith.
He said: “I don’t want to be over partisan on this. I don’t think anybody meant this.
“I think the Universal Credit system was was well meant by Ian Duncan Smith when he put it together.
“But I don’t feel that this aspect of bringing health and unemployment right together into one process was really thought through, or they could foresee the consequences, but that’s what’s happened, so too readily signed off and written off.”
McFadden described conversations he had with fellow Labour politicians in message exchanges released over the Mandelson affair.
He wrote to the disgraced Peer: “Every meeting I have is ‘who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others. They’re asking the wrong questions.”
But he revealed that he stood by his comments. He said: “No one should really be surprised at what I think and say and I don’t think there’s any great shock in my desire to change the system.
“Since I came into this post nine months ago, I’ve said I want to change the question the system asks from ‘what benefits are you entitled to’ to ‘how do we help you change your life’. It’s a much more active and positive question.”
Wannabe Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham says Britain must not be “squeamish” about reducing the welfare bill to find extra money for defence.
