Dear Editor,
It’s welcoming to see the Government make some concessions and reforms to Universal Credit. Whilst these might mark tentative steps in the right direction, it is clear that we need a more urgent and comprehensive overhaul of the system, if it is to have any chance of working.
Progress has come at a glacial pace after successive ministers have buried their heads in the sand about the many issues that have beset the roll-out of Universal Credit.
It must also be remembered that thousands of Londoners have been left to suffer as a result of the move to the new system- the Government’s handling of which has so far been dangerously devoid of both compassion and logic.
Whilst it comes as a relief that the two-child benefit cap will be scrapped for 15,000 families, it is imperative that this exemption is urgently extended to all families with children born after April 2017 who remain at risk of being cruelly plunged into poverty.
It’s very welcome that the Government have committed to putting measures in place for a new online system that will enable rent payments to go directly to private landlords. However, unless we receive cast-iron assurances that the benefit freeze will end next year, levels of rent arrears among claimants will continue to spiral out of control in London’s private rented sector.
Yours,
Fiona Twycross AM
Londonwide Assembly Member