1. UNIVERSAL CREDIT - 2013 BBC News - Universal credit: Major benefits shake-up begins

2. What is Universal Credit? The overhaul of benefits has been driven by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith who argues that too many people are trapped on benefits. The changes are designed to make work pay, instead of people seeing their income drop by moving off benefits and into low-paid work.

3. It is also a bid to simplify the system by merging a string of working- age benefits and tax credits – (income-based jobseeker's allowance, income-related employment and support allowance, income support, child tax credit, working tax credit and housing benefit) into one single payment, called universal credit. This is supposed to reduce the amount of fraud and error that hits the benefits system amounting to billions of pounds a year.

4. How does Universal Credit work? It will be paid once a month, rather than fortnightly or weekly, and will go directly into a bank account. If both you and your partner each receive these benefits, then this will change to a single payment for the household. In addition, if you receive help in paying your rent at present, this money goes directly to your landlord. Under universal credit, you will receive the money as part of your benefit payment and you will then have to pay your landlord.

6. In monetary terms, the government estimates 3.1 million households will be entitled to more benefits as a result of universal credit, while 2.8 million households will be entitled to less.

7. BBC news – December 2013: The project has been beset by problems since it began in 2010 and Mr Duncan Smith acknowledged on Thursday that Universal Credit would not be paid to about 700,000 people until after a planned 2017 deadline. Labour has claimed the £2bn project is "in tatters", citing figures in last week's Autumn Statement that only a handful of people will be claiming Universal Credit next year and figures for 2015-16 will be about 400,000 compared with initial expectations of 4.5 million. But Mr Duncan Smith told the Commons Work and Pensions Committee: "There's no debacle on Universal Credit." He added that "within budget, we are delivering a Universal Credit solution", saying: "We could not do it unless the equipment we were building was up and working." There is cross-party support for the theory behind the benefit, but the delivery has been criticised.

8. BBC News - Duncan Smith says Universal Credit 'not a debacle' BBC News - Duncan Smith says Universal Credit 'not a debacle' Mr Duncan Smith was being questioned by MPs amid fears the Universal Credit system would miss key targets and concerns over the IT system being used.