David Gauke has accepted a Labour motion to provide reports into the rollout of Universal Credit to the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee.
In a victory for Jeremy Corbyn’s party, the Work and Pensions Secretary told MPs on Tuesday that he will honour an opposition request for the unpublished files to be passed to the committee on an “exceptional” basis.
Yet despite the Information Commissioner ruling the documents should be fully published, the government still won’t release them to the public.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) drafted five “Project Assessment Reviews” between 2012 and 2015 to alert civil servants and ministers to potential pitfalls of the Tories’ flagship welfare reform programme.
As part of its bid to pause the nationwide roll-out of Universal Credit, Labour used the same ancient Parliamentary procedure that it deployed to force the publication of confidential Brexit impact assessments last month.
HuffPost UK revealed on Monday how Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Debbie Abrahams drafted the motion in a bid to force the government’s hand over the reports.
Universal Credit has been beset by controversies and accusations it leads to increased poverty and homelessness.
Gauke’s acceptance of the motion before a vote could take place avoided a potential Commons defeat.
But he also blasted Labour for “scaremongering”, saying Universal Credit “improves lives”.
Gauke said: ”…the irresponsible scaremongering of the opposition is causing unnecessary anxiety for people who are getting support from the system.”
Labour’s formal motion stated:
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, That she will be graciously pleased to give directions that the five Project Assessment Reviews carried out into Universal Credit between 2012 and 2015 by the Government’s Major Projects Authority now known as the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, and any subsequent Project Assessment Reviews carried out into Universal Credit by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority between 1 January 2016 and 30 November 2017 that have been provided to Her Majesty’s Ministers at the Department of Work and Pensions, be provided by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to the Work and Pensions Committee.
The Information Commissioners Office has previously ruled that the DWP should publish the files concerned in full, a decision the government has said it will challenge.
HuffPost revealed this weekend how terminally ill Universal Credit claimants are routinely assigned “work coaches”, prompting condemnation from charities.