Will there be a Universal Credit Mea Culpa

It looks as if Iain Duncan Smith is finally going to admit that Universal Credit is badly off course.  At least I assume that is the reason for the story in today's Telegraph.  Such an acknowledgement would be all to the good, although the Telegraph hints that he is simply going to blame his own officials rather than the inherent difficulties of the subject.  

One of the differences between the current Tory government and the previous Thatcher government is that Thatcher at least had a reputation for competence.  The present gang appear to rush into schemes without giving them proper thought.   This applies as much to Syria as to domestic policy.  Universal Credit was always going to be an IT and bureaucratic challenge.  Since it means changing client behaviour at the same time as changing all the systems to deal with clients, it had every prospect of becoming a nightmare.  Iain Duncan Smith's stubborn refusal to acknowledge the difficulties must have made it significantly more difficult to overcome them.