MP hits out at benefit reform

VULNERABLE people could be left without vital support in the welfare shake-up, fears Oldham MP Debbie Abrahams.

The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP is a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, which has published a report warning that there remains worrying uncertainty about the over-budget Universal Credit (UC) IT system and how the vulnerable will be supported to cope with the changes it brings.

Oldham is one of 10 areas where UC is being piloted. A national roll-out was due to begin in October last year but problems with IT systems meant that major changes were made to the timetable for its introduction.

New claims are now not expected to be extended to the whole of Britain until 2016 — and the bulk of existing claimants will not move over to UC until 2016-17.

Mrs Abrahams said: “The questions the Government seems unable to answer around the proposed new IT system for UC are how it will work, how much it will cost and who will develop it?

“Pretty basic, but important, information I would think and it’s very worrying that once again the Secretary of State, Iain Duncan Smith, seems to have absolutely no idea what is going on in his own department.”

The Labour MP added: “The money wasted on Universal Credit so far is £40 million on IT software that now has no use and £90 million on software with a useful life of only five years. That is a shocking waste of public money.”