Chancellor urged to lower tax rate on universal credit Read moreIn the opposition day debate on Wednesday, the Labour frontbencher will reveal new figures, shared exclusively with the Guardian, that suggest universal credit cuts could push 1 million more children into poverty by 2020. They support the principle of universal credit but are concerned about practical problems. They suggested that if ministers had that money to spend, they would not plough it back into reducing the six weeks, because they believed the advance payments were robust enough. However, Gauke and May have also come under pressure from the chair of a parliamentary committee who claimed the government had “no idea” whether universal credit was working effectively. “The near universal view on universal credit is if the rollout proceeds as planned it will make our problem with rough sleeping and homelessness dramatically worse,” Burnham told the BBC’s Today programme.

Source: The Guardian October 17, 2017 19:27 UTC