UNIVERSAL CREDIT (UC) claimants were waiting up to 11 weeks for full payment even before demand rocketed during the coronavirus crisis, a report revealed today.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had “significantly” improved the proportion of claims paid on time, from a woeful 55 per cent in January 2017 to 90 per cent in February 2020, according to the National Audit Office (NOA).

But as the number of people claiming UC has grown, the number of people paid late has also increased — from 113,000 in 2017 to 312,000 in 2019.

Last year, new claimants faced average delays of three weeks on top of the deliberate five-week wait for payment.

About 6 per cent of households, or 105,000 new claims, waited 11 weeks or more.

The report warns the DWP that it needs to better understand and address the needs of people with more complex claims, who may be more likely to struggle to make and maintain a claim.

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) member Linda Burnip told the Morning Star that even the “normal” waiting period for the first payment was too long.

“The government justifies this by saying people can get a repayable loan, but this leaves people in ongoing poverty for many more months. UC is flawed and must be scrapped,” Ms Burnip said.

Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Alison Garnham said that people on low incomes were often reluctant to take advance payments during the wait because “it’s just more debt to pay off down the line.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady called for a “strong safety net” for when people fall on hard times, and demanded an end to the five-week wait, which causes “needless stress and hardship.”

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s policy manager, Iain Porter, said there was “nothing compassionate or just” about the five-week wait, and demanded that people are given much-needed support as unemployment levels grow. 

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said: “Too often, when people need support from the social-security system, UC makes their problems worse, not better.”

He said Labour would replace UC with a new system that has “dignity and respect at its heart.”

A DWP spokesman claimed that UC was “delivering in these unprecedented times.”