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Flagship Universal Credit in 'disarray' study finds

A study has found that Universal Credit, one of the Government's flagship policies, is in "disarray", suffering from a lack of staff, poor training and inadequate IT.

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Serwotka: 'Obvious that staff are under-resourced'

Almost four out of five Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members did not feel there were enough staff and two thirds said they were frequently asked to work overtime, said the union.

It has long been obvious that staff are under-resourced and under-trained and that universal credit is at risk of collapse. The DWP cannot keep burying its head in the sand and hope these problems go away because they are only going to get worse if nothing is done.

– PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said

More than half said they did not think Universal Credit was an improvement for claimants.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "The PCS survey comprises of only 13% of our 2,700 staff working on Universal Credit. They chose to ignore staff in our Jobcentres when conducting this research providing a skewed unrepresentative sample of union members."

Flagship Universal Credit in 'disarray' study finds

A study has found that Universal Credit, one of the Government's flagship policies, is in "disarray", suffering from a lack of staff, poor training and inadequate IT.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka says staff are under-resourced. Credit: PA

A survey of around 400 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union showed that 90% believed expensive IT systems dealing with the benefit were less than adequate. Almost three quarters said working conditions were worse than in their previous role and four in five said the training was less than adequate to prepare them for working on the scheme.

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