6

pub_notworking.gif
Writing in his blog, EUReferendum, Richard North rightly selects the criticism by Nick Cohen of the coalitions flagship policy, Universal Credit, for welfare reform . Some of the support, or criticism, of the work done by Iain Duncan Smith in the Department of Work and Pensions is simply yahboo in nature and depends upon where it's being published. So from some right wing elements it's the best policy to ever see the light of day and from the left we are told IDS is the devil incarnate. One joker even brought back memories of previous sloganeering by saying, Universal Credit isn't working!

North says he would not agree with all of what Cohen writes but we have to remember that Cohen is writing in the Guardian. So what Cohen cannot say is why people having their benefits stopped or reduced then find it's very hard to get work. So no mention of mass immigration distorting competition for jobs then!

What Cohen does is focus on the appaling IT failure behind the Universal Credit scheme. Seeing this vast waste of money perhaps the coalition are grateful they did not, formally, embark up on a system for compulsory ID cards as that would have wasted even more money!