Universal Credit: Court of Appeal Judgment

Lord Balfe Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stedman-Scott [V]]

I say again to the noble Lord that we are considering the judgment. We are working at pace to find a fix. The universal credit system, which has dealt with a massive increase in applicants, who have been paid, has been agile and flexible to do so. Some issues need to be overcome. They need a digital solution rather than a manual one. We have concentrated on paying people in these very difficult times, but I assure the noble Lord that a digital fix will be found as soon as it can.

[Lord Balfe (Con) [V]]

My Lords, people made severe criticism of the digital system of universal credit when it was introduced, but it seems that this design has enabled it to support an unprecedented number of people in recent months—the huge increase the Minister referred to. Would she agree that we could not possibly have done this without the digital changes made by this Government?

[Baroness Stedman-Scott [V]]

I completely agree with my noble friend. We would never have coped with the increase in demand in universal credit claimants had we not had the digital UC system.