A GWENT MP has urged Theresa May to use her final weeks in Downing Street to halt the introduction of Universal Credit.

The new welfare system, which was first introduced in 2013, was intended to encompass a number of different benefits in one payment, but has been dogged with problems since it was first rolled out, with some claimants having to wait weeks for their first payment.

And, speaking during Prime Minister's Questions this week, Torfaen MP Nick Thomas-Symonds called on Mrs May to stop the introduction of the system, making reference to her first speech as prime minister in 2016, in which she pledged to fight "burning injustices" of inequality.

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"Universal Credit is causing great hardship in my constituency," he said. "It is driving up debt and increasing food bank use.

"It is making people who are out of work worse off, and making people who are in work worse off.

"In her final weeks in office, will the prime minister act to halt the roll-out of this failed policy, or will she simply leave the injustice burning?"

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(Nick Thomas-Symonds speaking in Parliament)

But Mrs May hit back, claiming the system "is working".

"What lay behind Universal Credit was the need to change our benefits system," she said.

"Under the legacy system that we inherited from the Labour party, more than one million people were left on benefits for nearly a decade.

"What Universal Credit does is help people into work, and ensure that when they are in work they are able to earn more.

"As a result of Universal Credit, 200,000 more people are in work, one million disabled people are receiving more money, and 700,000 people are receiving the benefits to which they are entitled.

"This is a policy that is working."

Mrs May is due to step down as prime minister next month, with her successor - who will be either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt - to be elected on Tuesday, July 22.