A FEW weeks ago, I wrote a column where I noted that I don’t think I have ever heard a single piece of good news surrounding Universal Credit.

I went as far as to say that, in fact, I think if there was ever a success story to be published surrounding the Tories’ flagship welfare reform policy, it would be about the time that the Prime Minister would announce that she is performing another one of her now infamous U-turns to scrap the policy altogether and write it off as a bad job.

It seems I was slightly off the mark, because this week there was actually a bit of good news about Universal Credit. The Government announced that they would remove the high-cost phone lines that claimants have to use if they encounter any problems with their benefit.

Of course, Jeremy Corbyn jumped to take credit for this change in policy, completely ignoring the work my colleague and constituency neighbour, Chris Stephens MP, has been doing to fight for this change for over a year.

Of course, the good news didn’t last long…

Shortly after the announcement that the phone lines will be changed, we had a debate on the accelerated roll-out of Universal Credit in the chamber in Westminster. The Tories employed a tactic I instantly recognised – of providing complete misinformation and lies about what the opposition parties were asking for.

Where we were asking for the accelerated roll-out to be halted until the issues surrounding the six-week waiting period were looked at again and resolved, the Tories pretended we were calling for Universal Credit to be scrapped altogether. I noticed this tactic as it was the exact same one they tried when we debated my Private Members Bill last year on making benefits sanctions fairer. Where I was arguing for small changes to the system to make sure the most vulnerable in society were protected, the Tories stood up and gave speeches declaring that I was trying to completely remove the sanctions regime.

These tactics are disingenuous, infantile and insulting to the members of the public that these Tories claim to represent. It is clear to me that the Government would rather lie to people than admit that there was any fault in their policy.

And to be clear, the ideas behind Universal Credit are not bad. It makes sense to roll together the different benefits people receive into one. It does provide clarity and takes a positive step towards removing the confusion that surrounds the current social security system but forcing people to wait a month and a half before they receive any money is incomprehensible.

At best, it leaves people short for some bills and at worst leaves people without food, trapped in a cycle of rent arrears, forcing them into a spiral of debt.

And these situations are not just what could happen. They are happening. These are situations we hear about in surgeries, in emails and letters. They are real and the government has a real opportunity to fix this before it begins to affect people en masse.

The government was defeated at the end of that debate on Wednesday, but unfortunately the vote does not legally bind them to take action. Hopefully, as the pressure continues to mount, they will change their minds. I won’t hold my breath, though. It seems to me the government are stuck between two ideals. The Tories’ primary focus for the past seven years has been punishing the poor, and they are clearly banking on the six-week wait to continue this.

The other thing the Tories have focussed on over the past seven years is pushing this idea that anyone accessing the social security system is a drain on the economy or a “scrounger”.

I have sat with people who decry people on Jobseeker’s Allowance, while completely ignoring the fact that they are in receipt of Working Tax Credits. By combining all of these benefits suddenly everyone will be on Universal Credit.

There won’t be a differentiation between those “signing on” and those getting tax credits. It looks like the Tories either haven’t realised the damage they are doing to one of their most successful spin tactics, or they have decided that punishing the poorest always takes priority.

Either way, I continue to wait, without bated breath, for the day where Universal Credit is fixed and can actually work for everyone, without dividing people and without forcing them into food poverty or debt.