A STATEMENT in parliament today singing the praises of the controversial universal credit scheme has been blasted by two Wirral MPs.

Pensions secretary Esther McVey - herself a former Wirral MP - hailed the Government's flagship welfare policy as a “great British innovation” - even though a watchdog sounded the alarm over a series of failings just days ago.

The National Audit Office – the independent government auditor – found the new benefit is not delivering value for money and is pushing some claimants into financial hardship.

However Ms McVey told MPs: “Universal credit is a brand new benefit system. It is based on leading edge technology and agile working practices.

“Our strategy is based on continuous improvement. The result will be a tailor-made system based on the individual.

“This is a unique example of great British innovation and we are leading the world in developing this kind of person-centred system.

"Countries like New Zealand, Spain, France and Canada have met with us to see universal credit to watch and learn what is happening for the next generation of benefit system.”

Birkenhead MP Frank Field told the Globe: "Rather than that banal offering - which did nothing for our poorest constituents - a more realistic statement from the secretary of state would have acknowledged and sought to rectify the following points:

"Universal credit is helping to transform the welfare state from one which protects people from poverty to one that drives them into destitution.

" Vulnerable people face all sorts of difficulties in trying to make and manage a claim online.

"Mega-sums of money are being clawed back from people’s monthly payments to cover historic debts, leaving them short of money for food, rent and utilities.

"Parents have to struggle through a brutal process and rack-up debts to obtain the crucial childcare payments they need to stay in work.

"And total chaos is unleashed on family budgets by a process of calculating monthly payments that is totally alien to working-class lives."

Wirral West MP Margaret Greenwood, shadow work and pensions secretary, said the National Audit Office report into the new benefits system was “damning.”

She blasted it as a “major failing of public policy.”

She said: “It is failing to achieve its aims, and as it stands there is no evidence it ever will.

"The report suggests that universal credit may cost more to administer than the benefit system it replaced and concludes it has not delivered value for money.”