Frank Field, Labour MP and the Chair of the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, says that the built-in delays in processing universal credit (a minimum of six-weeks) has led to reliance on emergency food parcels, triggered debt and rent arrears, and caused health problems.
Frank Field, Labour MP and the Chair of the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, says that the built-in delays in processing Universal Credit (a minimum of six weeks) has led to reliance on emergency food parcels, triggered debt and rent arrears, and has caused health problems.
Mr Field has written to the work and pensions secretary, Damian Green, asking him to cut the lengthy and stressful wait for Universal Credit (UC) payments faced by penniless claimants.
The lengthy wait for UC payments was also reported as the main cause of referral for one in nine of the 79 cases presenting at a food bank in his local Birkenhead, Merseyside, constituency.
Reported in the Guardian by Patrick Butler, dated 24 August 2016.
