Universal credit scheme will waste at least £140m, say MPs

Iain Duncan Smith's flagship benefit reform has been severely criticised by MPs for failures that are expected to waste at least £140m of public money.

The universal credit scheme has been overseen by "alarmingly weak" management, with systems so lax that a secretary was allowed to authorise purchase orders worth £23m, according to the public accounts committee. In some cases it is unclear what suppliers have been paid for.

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 Duncan Smith's guidance as inadequate and open to fraud.

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