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Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke is giving evidence to MPs over the roll out of Universal Credit.

The troubled rollout of Universal Credit is set to dominate the agenda in Parliament today. Mr Gauke is appearing before the Work and Pensions Select Committee this morning and MPs will also debate the issue in the Chamber this afternoon. Labour will challenge Tory rebels to back its call to pause the rollout, and defeat the government in a House of Commons vote.

Mr Gauke announces the Government UC helpline will be made free for claimants after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn raised the issue at Prime Minister's Questions last week. Read our piece on the exchange here.

Tory Heidi Allen, who sits on the committee, welcomes the concession by the Government to make the helpline free. It had been charging claimants up to 55p-per-minute.

Mr Gauke told the committee: "Given the recent attention and concern that this could place a burden on claimants, I have decided that this will change to a freephone number over the next month.

"It has been DWP's longstanding position to operate local line charges for benefit inquiry lines, but having reviewed this matter more widely I will be extending freephone numbers to all DWP phone lines by the end of the year."

Read more here.

Labour MP Neil Coyle asks about people who are at risk of eviction or going into rent arrears following the six-week wait for payments. The long waiting time for the first payment is one of the key criticisms of the policy. 

Mr Gauke dismisses the concern, adding that 96% of new UC claimants have been paid in full within 10 weeks.

Committee chairman Frank Field challenges the Work and Pensions Secretary over the DWP's collection of data on Universal Credit, an issue he has championed in recent days. He has previously accused the Government of failing to reveal the scale of the problems with the rollout.

Labour has reacted to the news the helpline will be made free as new government statistics show there are now 610,000 UC claimants.

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Debbie Abrahams said: “The increase in the number of people on Universal Credit is worrying given the Government's chaotic handling of its roll out.

“The Conservatives have finally listened to Labour and scrapped the premium phone helpline for claimants, now they need to listen to the calls of charities and councils and back Labour's motion today to immediately pause and fix the roll out of Universal Credit, before more people are pushed into rent arrears, poverty and homelessness.”

A Universal Credit case manager wrote for The Independent about the suffering he sees on a daily basis.