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| Iain Duncan Smith says business case for universal credit approved by Treasury | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, said the strategic business case for universal credit had been approved by Treasury ministers for the remainder of the parliament. However, full approval for the whole of the welfare scheme had not been agreed. | The work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, said the strategic business case for universal credit had been approved by Treasury ministers for the remainder of the parliament. However, full approval for the whole of the welfare scheme had not been agreed. |
| Duncan Smith told the Commons that full agreement for the lifetime of the programme was expected very soon. He said the Treasury has given the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) financial approval to expand the UC programme from childless couples to families as part of a programme of phased approval. | |
| He also said he was willing to discuss requests by the work and pensions select committee to publish the business case prepared by the DWP. | He also said he was willing to discuss requests by the work and pensions select committee to publish the business case prepared by the DWP. |
| Duncan Smith was responding to an urgent Commons question, where the shadow welfare minister, Chris Bryant, accused him of being in denial. He said: "There has been so much beating about the bush that it feels as if this parliament has been misled by a government engaged in a deliberate act of deception." | Duncan Smith was responding to an urgent Commons question, where the shadow welfare minister, Chris Bryant, accused him of being in denial. He said: "There has been so much beating about the bush that it feels as if this parliament has been misled by a government engaged in a deliberate act of deception." |
| There is suspicion in parliament about the progress of UC after the National Audit Office claimed, in a damaging report, that ministers had not been sufficiently open about the technology problems that has beset the programme. | |
| Duncan Smith and David Cameron have brushed aside claims that MPs were still being misled about UC's progress after the head of the civil service on Monday said the business case for universal credit had not been signed off by the Treasury. | Duncan Smith and David Cameron have brushed aside claims that MPs were still being misled about UC's progress after the head of the civil service on Monday said the business case for universal credit had not been signed off by the Treasury. |
| Previously the employment minister, Esther McVey, said the Treasury had approved funding for universal credit in 2013-14 and 2014-15. Government sources said her answers were not at odds with the remarks by the head of the civil service, Sir Bob Kerslake, since she had made clear there was no blanket signoff by the Treasury. | |
| Duncan Smith told MPs that UC was being expanded in a controlled way starting with the single unemployed, expanded to couples in the summer of 2014 and then expanded to families later this year. He said: "This careful rollout is allowing us to learn as we go along". | |
| He said the Treasury has approved funding for the universal credit programme in 2013, 2014 and 2015."It has always been the plan to secure agreement for UC in carefully controlled stages first for singles and couples and then for families. | |
| "The final stage in this process, and the logical point is now, has always been to approve and sign off the full business case covering the full long lifetime of this programme going on beyond this parliament. We are in discussions about that." Cameron told MPs he would make no apology for rolling universal credit out slowly, adding that one in eight jobcentres would be handing out UC by next year. | |
| UC is a benefit that brings together six main benefits and tax credits in a reform that is agreed in principle by Labour. Cameron said Labour criticism of UC showed the party had gone back into the hole of being against every welfare change. | |
| The controversy over the apparent conflict between Kerslake's remarks at the public accounts committee on Monday and government written answers led the Speaker to ask the welfare secretary to explain to MPs if there was any discrepancy, as well as the funding status of the biggest postwar welfare reform. | The controversy over the apparent conflict between Kerslake's remarks at the public accounts committee on Monday and government written answers led the Speaker to ask the welfare secretary to explain to MPs if there was any discrepancy, as well as the funding status of the biggest postwar welfare reform. |
| Kerslake told the committee: "I think we should not beat about the bush. It has not been signed off." Asked at the same public accounts committee hearing whether the policy was on track the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, said: "In its current form, I believe it is." | |
| The Treasury permanent secretary, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, also replied when asked whether he had signed off the business case: "I believe that at each key milestone of the reset programme there is a Treasury decision to take." | The Treasury permanent secretary, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, also replied when asked whether he had signed off the business case: "I believe that at each key milestone of the reset programme there is a Treasury decision to take." |
| The public accounts committee chair, Margaret Hodge, said ministers were using smoke and mirrors. |