IRRV Alert -week ending 16th November 2018
News
Publicity
Reports
Committee question Social Security Advisory Committee as a “matter of urgency”
Committee question Social Security Advisory Committee as a “matter of urgency”
Committee Chair Frank Field warned that MPs would have “no option but to vote down” new Universal Credit regulations recently laid in Parliament, if safeguards for vulnerable claimants were not in place.
Chair's Comment
Commenting on the statement by the Department for Work and Pensions in the Commons today, Rt Hon Frank Field MP said:
“The Secretary of State could not ignore the swell of expert voices warning that the Government’s approach to moving vulnerable people to Universal Credit could end in disaster and destitution. The Department deserves credit for listening, but its response fails to provide in full the necessary safeguards for claimants, called for on all sides, and most powerfully from the expert Social Security Advisory Committee. That leaves us without an absolute assurance that no claimants will be left without any money.
“The Government must not ask the House of Commons to agree to these complex regulations until the Committee can advise the whole House. We’ll be hearing from the Social Security Advisory Committee as a matter of urgency next week.”
Witness
Wednesday 14 November, Grimond Room, Portcullis House
At 5.30pm
- Sir Ian Diamond, Chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee - GOV.UK