A delay in next year’s rollout of Universal Credit will cost the Government £100 million, according to The Times.
The revelation comes after the employment minister, Alok Sharma, confirmed on Tuesday a switch of benefits claimants onto the scheme, which was to start with an initial phase in January, will now begin in late 2019.
Four million people were due to be moved in a “managed migration” next year but according to leaked papers seen by the BBC, a large-scale move will not take place until November 2020 at the earliest.
According the The Times, the delay is set to cost the exchequer £100 million because the current welfare scheme pays out more.
Universal Credit combines six benefit payments - housing, child tax credits, income support, working tax credit, JSA payments and ESA - into one monthly payment.
The delay will enable ministers to push back a crucial vote on the migration which was to be held within weeks, quashing a potential rebellion of Tory MPs in the process.
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said the Government was sticking to its original timetable to pass secondary legislation in the Autumn.
The news adds to evidence that ministers are bowing to pressure to review the highly-criticised scheme to be rolled out nationally from 2019 to March 2023.
Birkenhead MP Frank Field this week revealed that women in his constituency were being driven to prostitution because of the scheme.
It follows an admission from Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey that families could be worse off under Universal Credit, amid estimates that three million families could lose out on £1,800 a year.
Meanwhile, a report out last week from the Resident Landlord Association revealed around two thirds of landlords with tenants on Universal Credit were owed rent arrears.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Margaret Greenwood has called for the Government to halt Universal Credit, tweeting on Tuesday that the Government “needs to get its act together”.
Chancellor Philip Hammond will soon announce measures to support claimants, including plans to shorten the period which is claimant does not receive a payment from five weeks to three weeks.
His October 29 budget is also expected to soften the rollout with an injection of hundreds of millions of pounds put back into the scheme.
It is yet to be seen whether the cash boost will meet the £2 billion that UC architect Iain Duncan Smith has suggested the system needs.