The Department of Work and Pensions has updated its impact assessment of Universal Credit, and now predicts that an additional 800,000 claimants will lose out in the long run.
The report, signed off by welfare minister Lord Freud, predicts that 2.8 million households will have notionally lower entitlement than they otherwise would have done as a result of Universal Credit. This compares with a figure of 2 million announced in October 2011 when the impact was first assessed.
The average reduction in entitlement for those losing out is estimated at £137. Families with children who are not renting will be the worst affected, with childless couples also badly hit. The majority of the ‘losers’ will be those working part or full time.
The full universal credit regulations in draft have now been published and are on the membership pages