THOUSANDS of vulnerable people face “real world misery” when they are transferred to universal credit (UC) payments from other benefits, an influential Commons committee has warned.

The government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has set a deadline of 2025 for 2.2 million households surviving on benefits such as housing benefit, working tax credit and income support, to be transferred to the UC system.

In a speech on welfare reform last week Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the transfer would give benefit recipients “more access to the world of work.”