Tories Plan To Deny EU Migrants Out-Of-Work Benefits under Universal Credit

Ministers are preparing plans to bar jobseekers from the European Union from receiving all out-of-work benefits once the universal credit system is completely introduced. Although universal credit – a merger of as many as six separate benefits – is unlikely to apply to existing claimants until as late as 2018, it will apply to new claimants sooner. The government is likely to argue that restricting access to universal credit is not in breach of EU rules since it is not a benefit primarily designed to facilitate access to the labour market. As a result, it is believed that access to its out-of-work benefits could be restricted without interfering with the free movement of labour, a central pillar of the European Union. Read more on the Guardian website.

Universal Credit ‘May Be Scrapped After Next Election’

The future of the Government’s major £2bn welfare reform has been thrown into fresh doubt after it emerged that just a handful of claimants have been enrolled into the new system.  The DWP disclosed that only 3,200 people had been signed up to receive Universal Credit – a fraction of the original target – at a cost of nearly £200,000 per person. The figure emerged amid claims the next government could be forced to pull the plug on Universal Credit. Under the original timetable, 1 million people would be receiving the payment by April, rising to 1.7 million a year later. But the DWP admitted that only 3,200 had been enrolled for Universal Credit by the end of November, nearly all of them as part of a pilot scheme. The vast majority are young single jobseekers, the least complicated category of claimant. Read more on the Independent website.