Universal Credit in ‘full-blown disaster’ as claimants soar by 1.5m below Labour | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Universal Credit is in “full-blown crisis” after claimant numbers soared by 1.5million below Labour. Startling new figures present that 8.4million persons are getting the cost, up from 6.9million when Sir Keir Starmer swept to energy in July 2024.

Of the 63,000 new claimants final month, greater than 25,000 are usually not required to work, with many having been deemed too ailing. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately branded it a “full-blown crisis with a claim form attached” and blamed Labour’s tax-and-spend agenda. She fumed: “Higher taxes, more regulation, fewer jobs. Labour’s bad economic choices are driving people onto welfare and passing the bill onto taxpayers.”

Ms Whately stated Chancellor Rachel Reeves was “killing jobs” and “piling taxes onto businesses and working people”. The high Tory stated solely the Conservatives would get the nation working once more.

Labour introduced the cap could be lifted within the November Budget, which was branded on the time by rivals as a “Budget for Benefits Street.”

But a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesperson stated Ms Whately’s remark was “misleading” as a result of many of the 1.5million “moved from old legacy benefits onto Universal Credit – a transition started by the previous government”.

In addition, a bigger proportion of the working-age inhabitants is claiming incapacity advantages. Personal Independence Payments for individuals claiming to endure from nervousness have elevated to £427million final yr alone, in response to the Mail on Sunday.

The present system permits anybody, even these in work, to assert the cost with out seeing a medical skilled.

A DWP spokesman added: “We’re fixing the broken welfare system we inherited, rebalancing Universal Credit to tackle the perverse incentives that discourage work, while redeploying 1,000 work coaches to support thousands of sick and disabled people who were previously left without contact for years.

“We are additionally endeavor the largest employment reforms in a era, overhauling Jobcentres and dealing with employers to ship our Jobs Guarantee, making certain each younger individual has the possibility to earn or study.”