Badenoch and Strathspey MP calls for "Advance payments, not loans"
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After new research showed that the five week-wait and advance payments under Universal Credit were contributing to financial hardship and debt – particularly for disabled claimants – SNP MP Drew Hendry has renewed calls to make advance payments non-repayable grants instead of loans.
The report by the National Audit Office said the Department for Work and Pensions needed to do more to support vulnerable people and others claiming Universal Credit.
It also revealed that disabled claimants and people on low incomes were more likely to claim advances and have other debts to repay from their Universal credit.
The simple solution, Mr Hendry contends, would be to turn the advance payments into non-repayable grants once the claimant had been deemed eligible for Universal Credit.
Ian Duncan Smith MP, architect of Universal Credit, recently admitted that keeping Universal Credit advance payments as loans instead of grants “is a policy decision, not a structural issue, so whatever the Government decides to do it is wholly feasible to do it.”
Commenting, Mr Hendry said: “The Chancellor’s statement this week was yet again another missed opportunity to put building a fairer society at the heart of the recovery post-COVID-19 – with no measures implemented to put cash in the pockets of those that need it most or to lift people out of poverty.
“As a pilot area for Universal Credit in 2013, families here know all too well the hardships relying on Universal Payments can bring – they’ve been enduring it for years, and it doesn’t get any easier.
"The long five-week initial wait, along with this advance payment system, forces them into debt, facing an uphill struggle to get back on their feet, all while getting a pittance in support.
"The current health crisis has only exasperated this hardship.
“The Tory government’s decision to keep advance payments as loans instead of making them non-repayable grants is a political decision, and nothing to do with operational or fiscal challenges.
"People should have access to the welfare safety net when they need it – and they shouldn’t be forced further into debt as a result.
“At a time when the Scottish Government is taking control of some social welfare spending and administering it in a fair and accessible manner, helping those most in need, the Tories would do well to listen and learn and start to take serious action to address rising poverty and rising debt.”
