Latest editorial
Civil servants demanded Iain Duncan Smith quit yesterday as he limply defended his multimillion-pound write-offs and delays for his controversial universal credit welfare changes.
The Work and Pensions Secretary admitted last week that the 2017 target for the full introduction of the single benefit was a no-hoper - with 700,000 claimants facing a longer wait.
He told the Commons work and pensions select committee yesterday that he was delivering the new system "within the timescale and budget" despite admitting that £40 million had already been written off.
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
While claiming to target fraud, Labour’s snooping Bill strips benefit recipients of privacy rights and presumption of innocence, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE, warning that algorithms with up to 25 per cent error rates could wrongfully investigate and harass millions of vulnerable people
