The last welfare benefit claimants will be moved onto universal credit by 2018, Iain Duncan Smith has forecast.
According to Inside Housing:
In an interview with the BBC, the Work and Pensions Secretary said the ‘last elements’ of claimants would be transferred onto universal credit by 2018.
It is the latest subtle shift in the policy’s timescale after Mr Duncan Smith admitted last December that universal credit might not be fully rolled out by the original deadline of 2017.
Universal credit combines a number of welfare benefits into one single payment.
‘The point that I’ve said is, within the original timescales I originally set out, going back to I think it was 2018 at the time with the last elements coming in,’ Mr Duncan Smith said.
He added: ‘Arbitrary dates and deadlines are actually the enemy of secure delivery.’
Today, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published a report, claiming that the reform would generate economic benefits of £7bn every year.
It said the impact of universal credit would lead to an additional 300,000 households in work by the time it was fully rolled out.
As of September this year, 14,170 households were claiming universal credit, with 7.7m expected to be claiming the benefit when it is fully in place.