Hard Work
The British government’s universal credit scheme seeks solutions to problems that have frustrated politicians for centuries.
Universal credit, introduced by the UK government in 2013, was intended to represent a significant development in social security policy. It aims to simplify provision for both workless and poor in-work households, as well as providing incentives for people to seek paid employment. Yet the benefit has become mired in controversy. It is associated with an increase in food poverty (alongside a rise in the use of food banks), rent arrears and, because of the Treasury’s use of it to make savings in social security spending, the further impoverishment of already poor people. In a controversial interjection, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Philip Alston, described it as ‘fast falling into Universal Discredit’.
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