Ministers must reconsider their timetable for decentralising welfare reform, if council finances are not to be placed at risk, an influential committee of MPs has warned.
According to a report by the communities and local government (CLG) select committee, plans to localise council tax benefit (CTB) and elements of the Social Fund – and to centralise housing benefit (HB) within the planned Universal Credit – would combine to leave ‘only the illusion of local discretion'.
