THE Chancellor has reduced the delay for people in getting their first universal credit payments from six to five weeks.

The move followed reports that many people were getting into rent arrears, problem debt or having to use food banks while waiting to receive the benefit.

Simon Topham, chief executive of Citizens Advice York, said recently that the six week delay before payments left people running out of money and struggling to pay for essentials, such as food, gas and electricity, and he backed a call by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, for the six week delay to be cut to four.

Campbell Robb, chief executive at the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation said yesterday that the announcement would help to ease initial problems many people faced when moving over to Universal Credit, but said the Government had decided to push ahead with big cuts to the amount of money people would receive.

He claimed: “By failing to end the benefits freeze, the Government will oversee almost half a million extra people in poverty by the end of this Parliament.”