Frank Field: NAO report a "sorry indictment of the benefits policy and administration locking lower earning families in this country into a miserable cycle of debt and hunger"

Responding to the NAO’s report on problem private debt in the UK, Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “This report shows that in the last six years, the proportion of private debt that is owed to Government has doubled to 40%, while the consumer credit part of the problem has closer to halved - a sorry indictment of the benefits policy and administration locking lower earning families in this country into a miserable cycle of debt and hunger, easy prey to loan sharks and forced to resort to food banks. The human cost is immeasurable, but the NAO has estimated the economic cost of the mental suffering alone at a staggering £900 million. Is that enough for Government to reconsider its approach?”

The Chair has written to Secretary of State Esther McVey (attached) with a series of concerns about private debt owed to Government and queries about possible solutions, for example allowing Universal Credit claimants to repay advances at the end of their claim, rather than beginning from their first regular UC payment.