Labour has promised to replace ‘inhumane' Universal Credit with a new social security system.

The party would also suspend the punitive sanctions regime and replace the Department for Work and Pensions with a Department for Social Security.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: ‘When a Labour government takes office we will introduce an emergency package of reforms to end the worst aspects of Universal Credit.

'And we will introduce a new system that will be based on the principles of dignity and respect, and it will alleviate and end poverty - not drive people into it.'

Think-tank, the IPPR, warned Universal Credit was failing to meet its stated aims.

Associate director at IPPR, Clare McNeil, said: ‘Levels of trust in Universal Credit are dangerously low in many communities in the UK.

'It urgently needs a fundamental re-engineering because some of the design principles are profoundly misconceived.'