This week the Work and Pensions Committee takes evidence on the
implications of Budget 2017, considering what was -
and wasn’t – in the Budget.
The Budget included “the beginnings of a rescue package for
Universal Credit” as the Chair put it, and the first questions to
our experts will centre on whether Government has done enough to
fix what the Committee has described as “fundamental flaws” with
the policy, and huge problems in its implementation.
The Committee’s first report on Universal Credit had the single
recommendation of cutting the initial wait from the standard six
weeks to one month: in response, in the Budget the Government cut
the first 7 days from the wait and proposed a package of other
measures.
The Committee will also turn to its next areas for work on UC,
which might include:
- the Committee’s concern that the way UC is calculated penalises
the self-employment
- how claiming UC affects children’s access to free school meals
- how UC incentivises work, the stated central
aim of the massive policy reform, through the work allowance
and “taper rate” - the amount of benefit you lose for every pound
you earn
At 0930 in the Wilson Room, Portcullis House:
David Finch, Senior Economic Analyst, Resolution Foundation
Andrew Hood, Senior Research Economist, Institute for Fiscal
Studies
Victoria Todd, Senior Technical Manager, Low Incomes Tax Reform
Group
Deven Ghelani, Director, Policy in Practice
