Skip to main content
Universal credit set to cost £1.25bn

Botched reforms designed to curb Britain’s benefit bill are set to cost the government a whopping £1.25 billion, Labour warned yesterday.

Ministers had claimed that one million benefit claimants would be on the new universal credit system by the end of this year, but so far only 12,000 have made the transition.

The means-tested credit is due to replace benefits including income support, housing benefit and child tax credits.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Reform UK Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick speaking on social care during a press conference at Millbank Tower, London, July 30, 2026
Politics / 16 August 2026
16 August 2026

‘Ultimately, all of Reform's policies benefit big business and attack workers and the poor,’ Diane Abbott MP tells the Star

Business Secretary Peter Kyle, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on stage ahead of Reeves's keynote speech during the Labour Party Conference at the Liverpool Arena, September 29, 2025
Labour Party Conference 2025 / 30 September 2025
30 September 2025

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