MPs criticise DWP information blackout

One of the letters questioned whether the announcement made by David Gauke at the Conservative Party Conference about making advance payments available within five days was simply a re-stating of current policy.

The committee said there are “very few” statistics in the public domain on Universal Credit and DWP has never published data on the lengths of waits over the statutory six week wait.

However, witnesses giving evidence at the committee have said some people have experienced delays of up to 10-12 weeks or longer in receiving payments.

The committee has written to the 54 MPs whose constituencies will have the Universal Credit full service for the first time in October to report back on the experience so far.

Frank Field, Labour MP and chair of the committee, said: “For claimants not to receive money from Universal Credit is usually a disaster. For the Secretary of State not to answer letters shows either a huge discourtesy to parliament or a sign that the government knows the game is nearly up in trying to present this mega-reform as a success.”

“I don’t know if the DWP is deliberately concealing information about Universal Credit or is simply incompetent. Either way, it is not good enough. This has obvious echoes in the far greater failure of not paying hungry claimants on time,” he added.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: “We are fully engaged with the work and pensions select committee. The Secretary of State recently met its chairman and will be appearing before it this week. Meanwhile, committee members have taken up our invitation to visit a Jobcentre to see how Universal Credit works for themselves.

“The Department also published a raft of research and analysis of Universal Credit, following requests from the work and pensions select committee, five weeks ago. This included evidence showing that the vast majority of people are paid on time and in full, and that people are moving into work faster than under the old system.”