Yesterday in Parliament I called on the Government to address the hardship being caused to young parents by Universal Credit.

Under Universal Credit, a parent under the age of 25 receives a lower standard allowance than they previously received under tax credits, when they would have been uprated to the over-25s rate.

In a question to the Minister in the Commons chamber I said “Under tax credits under-25 lone parents got paid the higher over-25s rate. Under Universal Credit they do not. What’s the Secretary of State going to do about this? I ask this on behalf of a group of young parents in Newport who are worse off under this system and in hardship.”

It is wrong that young, working parents living alone are worse off under the new Universal Credit system, which the Government claims was designed to incentivise and reward work. This is just one of a multitude of problems with the system which the Government has ignored, and is further evidence of the Conservatives failing working families.