Political Nonsense

POLITICAL NONSENSE                                       

One of the notions beloved by politicians is that they can control capitalism, although Ian Duncan's recent efforts should disabuse them of that idea. His idea was to replace six of the existing seven means-tested benefits covering unemployment, housing and children by an all-embracing Universal Credit. According to him it would all be in place by 2017, but The Times' journalists Phillip Collins recently exposed its failures. 'On its original prospectus , one million people should by now be receiving UC. The actual number 17,850 in a pilot project in Ashton-under-Lyne. A completion date of 2017 has been put back to 2020. The DWP (Ian Duncan) has already been upbraided for writing of £40 million in failed IT software and £91 million in other assets. The projected cost so far is £500 million.' (Times, 28 November) RD