Cameron and Osborne may just be about to pull off something incredible. This time last
year, The Spectator ran a cover story about a new proposal which we could revolutionise welfare:
the Universal Credit. It was an IDS idea: he’d sweep away all 50-odd benefits, and replace it with a system that ran on a simple principle – if someone did extra work, they’d get
to keep most of the money they earned. It meant a bureaucratic overhaul, of a system that controls the lives of 5.9 million people. The resistance from HM Treasury, the architect of the tax credit system, was as fierce as
it was predictable. But Clegg came to the aid of IDS, and Osborne has approved what could be – if properly followed-through – the single greatest single blow against poverty in a
generation.
Tomorrow, it will be confirmed that the Universal Credit is to be adopted in Britain, replacing the matrix of benefits that so entraps the poor now.
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