Southport’s MP supports the controversial Universal Credit system. Do his Tory colleagues agree?
Above: do local Tories, Harry Bliss and Sir Ron Watson, support Damien Moore’s stance on Universal Credit?
Above: Ainsdale’s habitually elusive Tory group leader, councillor Terry Jones. Does he think that Universal Credit is a great idea?
Damien Moore MP supports Esther McVey’s actions over Universal Credit. Esther McVey was appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 8 January 2018.
Ms McVey recently claimed: “everyone agrees on the principle” of UC – despite Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell saying it has “got to go”.
However, she also stated, “I’ve said we made tough decisions. Some people will be worse off.
Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, Wirral West MP Margaret Greenwood challenged McVey, saying that her comments expose the Tory Government’s latest assertion that, “no family will receive less money under Universal Credit” as fiction.
The findings of the report “Rolling out Universal Credit” by the National Audit Office (NAO), published on 15 June, were damning: universal credit is failing to achieve its aims and there is currently no evidence to suggest that it ever will; it may cost more than the benefits system that it replaces; the Department for Work and Pensions will never be able to measure whether it has achieved its stated goal of increasing employment; and it has not delivered value for money and it is uncertain that it ever will.
The NAO report raised real concerns about the impact on claimants, particularly the delays in payments, which are pushing people into debt, rent arrears and even forcing them to turn to food banks to survive. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions took nearly a week to come to the House to respond to the report on what is the Government’s flagship social security programme and a major public project. When she did so on 21 June, on a Thursday when she knew that many Members would not be able to be here, she undermined the report rather than address the extremely serious issues that it raised.
Her approach was shockingly complacent. It was as though she was oblivious to the hardship that so many people are suffering. She referred to universal credit as an example of “leading-edge technology” and “agile working practices”.
She said that it was “a unique example of great British innovation”
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2018-07-11c.985.0
Universal Credit was a decent idea in theory but the deeply flawed Tory implementation of it has turned it into a disaster in practice.
Esther McVey has already admitted that many working families could lose £200 a month over the Universal Credit system. Charities in the UK have warned that the Universal Credit migration process could push the most vulnerable people out of the benefits system and increase dependency on food banks.
Consequently, will Southport’s frequently invisible Tory elite explain (a clear political statement would be nice) where they actually stand on the welfare crisis, before the next elections, or will we just have to wait and see?
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