Briefing: Universal Credit
MPs are due to debate the government’s plans for universal credit in the House of Commons this afternoon. The Opposition Day motion questions whether ministers have ‘failed to properly account for numerous basic details of how the scheme will work’, and calls for them to address ‘deep flaws’ in the project. So where is the project at the moment, and what are those deep problems? The background Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith unveiled the universal credit at the Conservative party conference in 2010. It was based on the work that his think tank, the Centre for Social Justice had carried out when Duncan Smith was in opposition, and
