Universal Credit claimants ‘not in jobless count’

LABOUR has launched a fresh attack on the Government’s Universal Credit scheme after revealing that “errors” by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) mean claimants are being excluded from official unemployment figures.

By The Newsroom

Published 17th Feb 2014, 00:01 BST

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves, who is the Labour MP for Leeds West, claimed the Office for National Statistics, which publishes unemployment figures, had admitted in response to a parliamentary question that the DWP had not been able to supply it with information in a way that has allowed the inclusion of claimants.

Ms Reeves said: “This is another error by incompetent Ministers in their botched roll-out of Universal Credit. If David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith can’t ensure Universal Credit claimants are included on official unemployment figures, how can we have any confidence in their ability to deliver this flagship project?”

The DWP maintained unemployment is “falling significantly” and 1.3 million more people are in work than in 2010.

The latest unemployment figures are due to be published on Wednesday.