McVey admits some people will be worse off on universal credit despite counter claim from No 10 – Politics live

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happenTony Blair’s Q&A – SummaryLunchtime summary 2.47pm BST The Conservative MP Johnny Mercer says, unless more money is invested in making universal credit more generous, he won’t be able to support it.Ester’s in a tough spot here. It’s not her fault; Universal Credit was designed so that no-one would be worse off. Stop the tax-free allowance rise and re-invest into UC, or I can’t support it. Not politically deliverable in Plymouth I’m afraid. https://t.co/oQtCa9sZGA 2.15pm BST What I will say is I had a very open conversation with my colleagues about how we support people. So actually 1m disabled people will get significantly more on universal credit.I’ve said we made tough decisions. Some people will be worse off. But … under the old system 700,000 people didn’t get £285 a month, so they didn’t get the money they were owed. Under the old system the most vulnerable in society weren’t getting as much money as we are now going to give them. I would encourage [Valerie Vaz, her Labour shadow] not to believe everything she sees in the press. As [McVey] has made clear, we are making sure no-one sees a reduction in their benefits when we move them on to universal credit. There is £3.1bn of transitional protections being provided.Some “could be worse off” under universal credit, admits Esther McVey – but Work and Pensions Secretary says benefits changes are helping more people into workMore: https://t.co/WvzqDbh8oQ pic.twitter.com/n3F2DNN252Three million families are going to be worse off by about 50 per week from universal credit, 2.7 more million families are going to be forced into universal credit next year. So immediately we will say ‘we will stop this process’ and we would make sure that nobody is worse-off under universal credit.We should direct the money back into universal credit exactly as it was originally planned to be rolled out … The reality is £2n was taken out.Another cabinet minister @EstherMcVey1 takes a body swerve over Chequers …. #bbcnewsroomLIVE pic.twitter.com/DxJQXzBMygWe cannot know for sure what would have happened had the vote gone the other way, but it seems likely that the economy and public finances have been weaker than they otherwise would have been. Continue reading…
Via: McVey admits some people will be worse off on universal credit despite counter claim from No 10 – Politics live