JEREMY Hunt has vowed to scrap the hated five-week wait for benefits if he becomes prime minister – in a win for The Sun’s Make Universal Credit Work campaign.
The Tory leadership hopeful and underdog in the contest said Work and Pensions secretary Amber Rudd had “persuaded him” that change is needed to stop Brits falling into debt at the beginning of their swap to the new system.
During The Sun’s Final Showdown debate this evening he vowed to look again at the length that Brits have to wait for their first payment after Ms Rudd made the case to him.
He told an audience: “She has persuaded me that we do need to end the five week wait before people can claim Universal Credit.
“Which I think is the right reform, but it had unintended consequences when people had that wait early on.”
Mr Hunt has hinted he would do this before and would look at the benefits system if he gets into No10.
The Sun has been campaigning to reform and fix Universal Credit – including slashing the five-week wait and letting Brits keep more of what they earn.
We’ve told how Brits have been plunged into debt by being unable to access enough help quick enough when they switch to the six-in-one benefit.
He said Ms Rudd “cared passionately about social justice” too – and this week she has asked the new PM to look at hiking benefits too for the poorest Brits.
“If she recommended it I would look at it very carefully,” he added – but didn’t commit to anything.
Boris was more cautious and didn’t commit to reviewing the five-week wait if he gets to Downing Street.
He said: “I have great respect for what Amber is doing at DWP in trying to tackle the issues around Universal Credit, and making sure people get paid early enough.
“I am going to have a look at it and see what can do to help,” he said on the benefits freeze.
His aides said he would look at the benefits system in the upcoming spending review, but that he respected the DWP boss’s work on Universal Credit.
“We will look at it,” he said.
UNIVERSAL Credit replaces six benefits with a single monthly payment.
One million people are already receiving it and by the time the system is fully rolled out in 2023, nearly 7 million will be on it.
But there are big problems with the flagship new system – it takes 5 weeks to get the first payment and it could leave some families worse off by thousands of pounds a year.
And while working families can claim back up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs, they must find the money to pay for childcare upfront – we’ve heard of families waiting up to 6 months for the money.
Working parents across the country told us they’ve been unable to take on more hours – or have even turned down better paid jobs or more hours because of the amount they get their benefits cut.
It’s time to Make Universal Credit work. We want the Government to:
Together, these changes will help Make Universal Credit Work.
Join our Universal Credit Facebook group or email UniversalCredit@the-sun.co.uk to share your story.
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