Labour demands answers on DWP’s £600 million Universal Credit cut

							http://www.labour.org.uk/answers-needed-on-dwps-universal-credit-cut,2012-09-10


Labour demands answers on DWP’s £600 million Universal
Credit cut
10 September 2012

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions
Secretary, today demanded answers from Iain Duncan
Smith about whether working families will be squeezed
further by George Osborne’s new £600 million cut to
Universal Credit.

The independent Office for Budgetary Responsibility
forecast that when Universal Credit is fully rolled out by
2017 an extra £3.1 billion will be needed to top up family tax credits to make sure
people are better off in work. But the Treasury has limited the cost at £2.5 billion.
When challenged on the figures in the House of Commons today, Iain Duncan
Smith admitted that he had accepted the Treasury’s figures.

Following Iain Duncan Smith's admission in the House of Commons, Liam Byrne
has written to the Secretary of State to demand to know who will be hit and when.
The OBR have today confirmed to the Office of Liam Byrne that the £3.1 billion
figure was provided by DWP.

Liam Byrne MP said:

“There is a vital principle at stake - that families are better off in work than on
benefits. Cuts to tax credits already mean that some parents will be better off by
over £700 a year if they give up work and go on to the dole. At any time, but
especially during this recession made in Downing Street, that sends completely
the wrong signal and now we know there may be worse to come. So it is crucial
the government comes clean and tells us immediately who is going to be hurt.”