Delays to Universal Credit won’t fix its fundamental flaw

It’s rare that a government pauses the implementation of a flagship policy. There’s so much ego involved in these matters that to do so is to admit a failing, rather than merely being sensible. But the government has had little choice but to further delay the roll-out of Universal Credit while it sorts out some of the problems with it. The plan had originally been that a further roll-out to four million people would start in January, with more claimants moving in July. But today the Work and Pensions department confirmed that the July deadline has moved to November as a result of fears across Parliament that those who are already receiving the benefit are severely struggling.

There have been rumblings about this policy for a very long time indeed, and ministers have always responded with the argument that they are implementing it gradually, and changing the design of the benefit every time a problem becomes obvious in the latest small batch of claimants to receive UC.