SIR – Conservative Iain Duncan Smith has been closely linked to ‘Universal Credit’ (UC) from the very beginning. It was designed, supposedly, to simply the benefits system, deal with abuse and lead to more people getting into work.

However, since coming into effect, it appears there have been numerous problems which have combined to make things worse for the very people welfare is intended to support.

Firstly, the ‘all eggs in one basket’ approach has one big snag. Most claimants are living on an extremely tight budget, and, when payments are delayed for whatever reason, this immediately puts the recipient into huge financial difficulties as they have no other source of income.

Crucially, the multi million pound IT systems that underpin delivery of ‘UC’ have, up to now, proved notoriously unreliable and prone to crashing and ‘clogging up the system.’ And, the fact that claimants are often being given inconsistent, patchy advice over the phone, there are no face-to face meetings between staff and claimants, has added to the difficulties.

It seems, though Mr Duncan Smith has hailed the success of Universal Credit, the evidence clearly points to much more needing to be done before it can be considered fit for purpose.

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose