MPs on the influential Public Accounts Committee have criticised the Department for Work and Pensions for failures to the Universal Credit Scheme which have cost at least £140 million of public money. MPs also voiced doubts about whether the project can still be fully delivered by the deadline of 2017 and described a pilot set up under as inadequate and open to fraud. Universal Credit is due to be introduced in four years, with the Government claiming it can ensure people are always better off in jobs and save £38 billion by 2023.
