Theresa May faces Commons defeat over Universal Credit payment delays

MPs are poised to defeat Theresa May over long delays to Universal Credit payments, blamed for putting claimants at risk of debt and eviction.

A cross-party call for the six-week wait for a first payment to be cut to one month is expected to be approved by the Commons – potentially forcing the Prime Minister into another U-turn.

Thursday’s clash comes amid renewed speculation that the Government will concede a reduction in next week’s Budget, but only to five weeks.

The showdown could force ministers to accelerate that climbdown – and to go further.

It is being staged by the influential Work and Pensions Select Committee, which condemned the “acute financial difficulty” suffered by Universal Credit claimants in a damning report last month.

If the Government attempts to avoid a vote, by sitting on its hands, tellers will be placed in both “aye” and “no” lobbies to force a division and a result.

One source confidently predicted that the Prime Minister would lose, telling The Independent: “I think the Tory rebels will show up this time.”

The debate follows fresh revelations of the harm being inflicted by the long waits to receive Universal Credit, produced by Jeremy Corbyn in the Commons chamber.

The Labour leader showed Ms May a letter from a lettings agency, in Lincolnshire, which was preparing to evict tenants being placed on the benefit if they fail to pay their rent on time.

The letter – seen by The Independent – reads: “GAP Property cannot sustain arrears at the potential levels Universal Credit could create.

“If you do not pay your rent we will have no option but to ask you to leave and recover losses from your guarantor.

“This letter is not intended to cause you alarm, rather to inform you of the problems that could very well occur during the rollout of Universal Credit.”

Mr Corbyn challenged the Prime Minister, saying: “Does she think it is right to put thousands of families through Christmas in the trauma of knowing they’re about to be evicted because they’re in rent arrears because of Universal Credit?”

But, in reply, Ms May again defended the policy, replying: “What we see is, after four months, the number of people on Universal Credit in arrears has fallen by a third.”

And she claimed: “Universal Credit is ensuring we are seeing more people in work and able to keep what they earn.”

But Drew Hendry, the SNP MP, warned that some of his constituents were being forced to declare themselves to be dying, in order to receive the benefit.

The committee’s October report strongly attacked the six-week wait, warning “evidence compellingly links it to an increase in acute financial difficulty”.

Frank Field, its Labour chairman, said: “The baked-in wait for payment is cruel and unrealistic and Government has not been able to offer any proper justification for it.

“The Government faces defeat tomorrow [on Thursday] in the Commons. There will be no ignoring the result of a debate and vote on this cross-party motion.”

Universal Credit replaces six working-age benefits with a single payment, with the intention of making the system simpler to understand and administer.

But only 10 per cent of current benefits claimants will be receiving it when the current extension is completed, in January. The full rollout will not be completed until 2022.