Universal Support was always meant to sit alongside Universal Credit, specifically focused on helping written-off groups. But it was cut by an impecunious Treasury.
Jeremy Hunt presents to Parliament the Government’s plan centred on his so-called Four Es: Enterprise, Education, Employment and Everywhere.
Such a policy, already successfully delivered in Manchester, could transform thousands of lives by helping those who are willing, but not yet able, back into work.
Ministers can make the system more generous, easier to access, and contributory – but must rediscover their appetite for reform.
There is a danger, not to mention an irony, in a conservatism that views a mother, carer, or retiree as just an inactive worker.
The claim that nothing has been achieved springs from the same lack of seriousness — and is simply untrue.
We need our Conservative government to do what it does best: provide a path to prosperity and empower people to get back to work.
Rolling out free school meals to every child from a family on Universal Credit will lead to healthier and more attentive pupils.
For every new Universal Credit Claimant without enough savings to cover the five-week wait, we should start paying benefits at the same frequency as they were being paid in their previous job.
There is strong Conservative support for a robust safety net to save the most vulnerable from destitution.
More than anything else, the one thing that seems to unite governmental successes listed here has been Ministers taking a laser like focus on delivery.
Above all, to what extent will he present a clear plan and message? My starter for ten is “help hard-working people and go for more growth”.
Ministers have protected some of the most vulnerable people in society, during some of the most challenging times the country has faced. They should now adapt the Social Metric Commission’s measure of poverty as a national statistic.