The six-week waiting time for universal credit must be cut as the idea that people have a nest egg to fall back on is "grotesquely ignorant", the Archbishop of York has said.
Since it began rolling out four years ago, almost a quarter of the 610,000 claimants receiving the benefit have had to wait for a month and a half for the first payment.
He wrote that the current system "seems to assume that everyone has a nest egg that will tide them over as they wait a minimum of 42 days for payouts. That assumption is grotesquely ignorant, because millions of people, especially those in need of support, are already in debt and have nothing to fall back on. " Dr Sentamu added that the UK's poorest were at risk of falling into a downward spiral of debt, with some taking out expensive loans to bridge the 42-day benefit gap, so that the repayment of loans or of interest "becomes the first call on any payment they receive".
Since it began rolling out four years ago, almost a quarter of the 610,000 claimants receiving the benefit have had to wait for a month and a half for the first payment.
He wrote that the current system "seems to assume that everyone has a nest egg that will tide them over as they wait a minimum of 42 days for payouts. That assumption is grotesquely ignorant, because millions of people, especially those in need of support, are already in debt and have nothing to fall back on. " Dr Sentamu added that the UK's poorest were at risk of falling into a downward spiral of debt, with some taking out expensive loans to bridge the 42-day benefit gap, so that the repayment of loans or of interest "becomes the first call on any payment they receive".
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