Universal credit will hit low-income families, charity warns

The government's flagship welfare policy could leave working people with less cash and increase the complexity of the benefits system, despite ministers' promises that it would be a simpler alternative with no losers, a report by an influential charity has said.

From next year new claimants will get a single payment instead of a series of different ones. The coalition's big idea is to put out-of-work benefits, tax credits and housing benefit into a single benefit for working-age people called the "universal credit".

This single credit, the biggest shake-up in benefits for a decade, will consist of a basic personal amount – with additional elements for disability, caring responsibilities, children and housing costs.

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