david gauke.e minister's questions rolled around a couple of hours later, the labour leader welcomed that change of heart, but feared the system still had problems. mr speaker, last week i asked the prime minister to scrap the unfair charges on the universal credit helpline. today she has finally bowed to that pressure. but the fundamental problems of universal credit remain. the six—week wait, rising indebtedness, rent arrears and evictions. will the prime minister now pause universal credit and fix the problems before pressing ahead with the roll—out? prime minister! yes, it is absolutely right... listen to the sentence. theresa may paused until the speaker restored some order. i suggest to honourable members opposite that they listen to the whole sentence that i was going to say. yes, it is absolutely right that we have announced this morning that we are going to change in relation to the telephone charge that is made. i think this is, i said last week that we were listening to a number of prop

it looks like david gauke was saying the six weeks stays? at the time for that as well. we have had some previous so i'm confident that we can run a campaign and win in the end. ok. your reaction to the fact that the premium phone helpline costing people 55 pence a minute has been scrapped, well it will be free from now on? ijust been scrapped, well it will be free from now on? i just think it is ridiculous the government have people—up helplines. they should all be scrapped. i don't understand why the government has them. stephen mcpartland, conservative mp for steve na g e. mcpartland, conservative mp for stevenage. we will bring you a full report tomorrow on universal credit and how including how claimants have faced hunger and the prospect of losing their home while waiting for the first universal credit payment to come through. here is an idea of what they had to say. last weekend we had no food. 0n the saturday we were walking down the street and she was searching through bins to see if there was any food. it was awful. it broke my hea

david gauke refused to pause the rollout, however, although he did concede to one labour demand. to the universal credit helpline, which can cost up to 55p a minute, will be made free. given the recent attention, and concern that this could place a burden on claimants, i have decided that this will change to a free phone number over the next month. the speaker: jeremy corbyn. that wasn't enough for labour, however, who went on the attack again. the fundamental problems of universal credit remain — the six week wait, rising indebtedness, rent arrears, and evictions. will the prime minister now pause universal credit, and fix the problems? it is a system that is working, because more people are getting into work. and pausing universal credit won't help those people, who will be helped by going to universal credit, getting into the workplace, and bringing home more pay for their families. all parties agree with the principle of universal credit, simplifying the benefit system. but a parliamentary debate later revealed more divisions. birkenhead food bank, after talking to other food

as you saw from the prime minister, and david gauke said they would press ahead with the roll—out, butere is a feeling that it is a tainted brand, but they say it is progressive and incentivises people to come into work, but tainted because of the botched introduction, a feeling that there were big rows between iain duncan smith and the treasury, and perhaps iain duncan smith was not facing up to problems with the introduction of it. and there is also a great fear, as you saw today, thatjeremy corbyn can make great hay of this, lots of videos going out from momentum. so the government was listening to the torah balls, we had that announcement from the prime minister saying the hotline would be free, and they are listening to the point being made by the tory rebels, can you reduce the waiting period from six weeks? they are listening very carefully, that the prime minister said that they would not be there for the labour vote and pausing universal credit. under other circumstances, you might think the prime minister would be happy to escape to europe! yes, big day, she will address 27 o

the work and pensions secretary david gauke believes he is involved in something of a rescue missionage this landmark reform. in his eyes, many of today's problems were caused by the failure of the architect of the scheme, iain duncan smith, to appreciate the vast challenge of introducing such a wide—ranging reform. david gauke is not giving much away at the moment, but downing street is looking seriously at implementing the main demand by tory backbench critics to reduce the initial payment period from six weeks to four, or to abolish the so—called seven waiting days, in which no benefits are paid in the first week. if the government is feeling particularly ambitious, it could look at two further reforms, allowing people to earn more before their benefits first start being reduced. this would bejuiced george osborne's cup to the worker allowance, costing around £2 billion. changing the rate at which benefits are reduced as someone earns more money, the chancellor cut the tape rate from 65 to 63% in the budget. some cabinet ministers want this to go down to 60%. this would cost aroun

david gauke refused to pause the roll—out, but he did make one concession.o the universal credit helpline, which can cost up to 55p a minute will be made free. given the recent attention and concerned this could place a burden on claimants, i have decided this will change to a freephone number over the next month. the change was welcomed, but a parliamentary debate latest significant concerns about universal credit were obvious. birkenhead foodbank, after talking to other food banks, who have experienced the roll—out, believe they will need 15 tonnes more food this christmas. the fundamental problem of a minimum six—week wait and that means there are constituents who are living on the edge and we are talking about real people and their lives here. in lowestoft, significant problems have been encountered with vulnerable people being placed in difficult situations and at times, the system has struggled to cope. taking a break from the debate, the secretary of state told me the reform was working, despite the problems. the analysis we have done suggested by the

david gauke. and that's it for this programme.or now, from me, keith macdougall, goodbye. hello there. quite a lot of cloud first thing across the southern half of the british isles. some drizzly outbreaks of rain, as well, in parts of england and wales. the best of the sunshine first thing today is likely to be across scotland. for northern england, perhaps some breaks in the cloud, and for the midlands, too. here's the picture first thing, as you can see. fairly solid cloud across england and wales. we'll take a closer look at where the breaks are to be found injust a second. but really, you can already see the contrast — scotland and northern england looking much clearer. northern ireland likely to see some sunshine in shelter from the westerly or south—westerly wind. but some showers arriving through the morning as well, one or two of them heavy during the rush hour. still strong winds and some heftier showers for the northern isles. the showers as we head onto the mainland of scotland a little bit more scattered. some heavier

david gauke refused to pause the rollout however, although he did concede to one labour demand — callselpline, which can cost up to 55p a minute, will be made free. given the recent attention and concern that this could place a burden on claimants, i have decided that this will change to a free phone number over the next month. the speaker: jeremy corbyn. that wasn't enough for labour however, who went on the attack again. the fundamental problems of universal credit remain — the six week wait, rising indebtedness, rent arrears and evictions. will the prime minister now pause universal credit and fix the problems? it is a system that is working because more people are getting into work and pausing universal credit won't help those people, who will be helped by going to universal credit, getting into the workplace and bringing home more pay for their families. all parties agree with the principle of universal credit, simplifying the benefit system, but a parliamentary debate later revealed more divisions. birkenhead food bank, after talking to other food banks who have experienced the r

david gauke told his party today that now is not the time to apply the brakes, is that he said, morere better off in work but that is not the case. not everyone benefits under the new system but 50 job centres a month, every month, from this month, will see the full service roll—out continue at a faster pace than ever before. returning to the main story, deadliest mass shooting in modern us history, at least 50 killed and 200 wounded in las vegas. james cook is there. we are learning more about there. we are learning more about the gunman and what happened to him. getting more information about how this came to an end, this horrific mass shooting, the gunmen was on the 32nd floor of this building, mandalay bay hotel, and apparently, what gave away his location, two things gave away his location. people could see muzzle flashes from the window, where the weapon was being fired, but also, what really helped the police in getting to the room and getting into the room was that the smoke alarm, the smoke detector in the room went off because there was so much smoke from the weapons that h

if you cannot wait six weeks for your payment, you get money in advance and it's great to hear david gaukeate that to claimants. if they can get that right, this system should really start to fly. that has been a major failing them, because that is the thing that has caused immense suffering to lots of people who have been talking to us and others saying they are not in a position where they are not in a position where they can wait even two or three weeks. i'm wondering why the planning of the implementation that category of people was not dealt with. the government right in terms of they've identified there was a mistake being made a few months ago. a lot of the stories we have heard are from april, may time when people on the front line, the work coaches working with the claimants were not telling them enough they could get their benefit advanced and get it within two weeks or even sooner than when they lost their job within two weeks or even sooner than when they lost theirjob and came on to benefit. if you look at the dated now, there is welcome signs this is being communicated far mo

what the secretary of state david gauke announced is that people would get off at the zone would be able, it's your own money in advance. so you will get less for the next few months after that. so it is some progress, and we only got the full details yesterday afternoon, i have to say, from the department for work and pensions. it isa department for work and pensions. it is a help but it doesn't really solve all the problems.” is a help but it doesn't really solve all the problems. i wanted to ask you that, is enough to help? confusion aside, will it make a real difference for people?” confusion aside, will it make a real difference for people? i think it will help over those first 45 days. we can all imagine, if all the ways of getting money out of the bank we re of getting money out of the bank were taken away from us, could we live 45 days? i suspect none of us could. it will help people but it will mean they are worse off for a bit longer afterwards. the other problems with universal credit, which people point to ask, are you can't have your rent paid direct to your landlord, except

the work and pensions secretary david gauke talking about universal credit. 0ur assistant political editor—out of universal credit but mrgauke the roll—out of universal credit but mr gauke talked about our fast tracking of payments for people in need but he said this was a transformative need but he said this was a tra nsformative change in need but he said this was a transformative change in the welfare state. that will not satisfy all critics but will it satisfy critics within the party? that depends what happens with the expanded roll—out of universal credit next week when all new claimants move on to universal credit and there are concerns that more people will have to wait weeks to get their credit and the risk for the government is it has tinges of the uproar over changes to tax credits and personal independence payments. 14 conservative mps have signalled their disquiet but mr gauke believes with a bit of tweaking and nudging for a job centres to push payments faster, this could work, it is one of the few issues to get much traction here beyond the big beast which is dominating this

you are in government, but the problem is yesterday david gauke was boasting that 80% of people get their years, that's not the case. we want to make universal credit work and we have offered to work on issues that are problematic. there needs to be a pause so no problematic. there needs to be a pause so no more people are made to suffer in the way we have heard today. tony, a final word from you. how are you now? still coping. i chalk it up to myself. the dwp manor in helping people back into work, after suffering on my own for three months, i will take the credit. i don't think it's fit for purpose as it stands and they should rethink the implementation, either the design of the implantation is at this point, i think, design of the implantation is at this point, ithink, malicious design of the implantation is at this point, i think, malicious or simply incompetent. —— design or the implementation. thank you for joining us. so many comments from you about the interview with the former boss of charity kids company. the e—mail from miles, a good interview with the founder, who tried to tur

let's put those points to david gauke's opposite number. i'm joined by debbie abrahams. and support those and unfortunately there are a number of design issues which have been there from the onset. on top of that, you remember, that in the 2015 summer budget, what were called the work allowa nces budget, what were called the work allowances were cut, the £12 billion cut which means as the institute for fiscal studies says, work does not p5y~ fiscal studies says, work does not pay. it's lost. the government is disingenuous saying it does pay. so it isn't making work pay. i have said and i'm more than happy to work with them to fix the issues. but it needs to be recognised that what they are. so you're claiming that it leads the welfare system, not being properly funded, that's what you are opposed to rather than even the roll out it's sieve? no, as! opposed to rather than even the roll out it's sieve? no, as i said, there are structural issues with it and pa rt of are structural issues with it and part of the structural issue is around the delay in payment. there is the w

this is what david gauke told the committee.been criticism over the telephone charges that exist in respect of universal credit. now, as we've previously said, universal credit 0345 numbers are charged at local rate, which is included in the call package in most mobile and landline phone deals. contrary to some reports, these are not premium lines. dwp does not make a profit from these lines. nonetheless, given the recent attention and concern that this could place a burden on claimants, i have decided this will change to a freephone number over the next month. as you will be aware, it has been dwp's long—standing position to operate local line charges for benefit inquiry lines, but having reviewed this matter more widely, i will be extending the freephone numbers to all of dwp's phone lines by the end of the year. i wanted the committee to be the first to hear of this approach and i think that is helpful to the committee. all this of course before the debate in the commons this afternoon on this issue of universal credit and wh