Foodbank use in the UK increased 13% last year but in areas that have moved to Universal Credit it has shot up an astonishing 52%. When an MP asked the head of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) why this was, he replied: “I don’t know, it is a really good question”.

Some have argued that by not answering this question the UK Government is hiding bad news. The truth is much more worrying – it simply hasn’t looked.

When I sit with people on Universal Credit, it is the administrative chaos that is most obvious. Journalists have reported on many horrific cases, but it is the everyday pressures caused by delays, computer issues, documents going missing, as well as the ever-present threat of sanctions, that reveal just how badly this system is failing many families.

Universal Credit’s architects, the Centre for Social Justice and Iain Duncan Smith, have argued that it is spending cuts that have caused the problems. They have a point. Yet while the Budget partly reversed one of these cuts, Universal Credit bears the scars of eight years of cutbacks with much more planned.

Churches, charities and claimants themselves have repeatedly said that Universal Credit leads many towards financial crisis and even hunger. The UK Government has vigorously rejected these claims, but has never backed this up with direct evidence.

A Government survey of claimants showed that 4 in 10 families were struggling. In response the head of the Universal Credit programme admitted that the survey design means it’s not possible to tell if Universal Credit makes things better or worse. In the words of the National Audit Office, the DWP “does not know how many claimants are having problems with (Universal Credit) or have suffered hardship.”

William Beveridge designed the current benefit system 75 years ago with the express intention of ending poverty, or in his words the “giant evil” of “Want”. Today, the purpose of Universal Credit is very different.

The purpose of Universal Credit is made clear in DWP documents that describe how the system’s success or failure is judged. It aims to increase employment by "changing the behaviours and attitudes” of low-income families.

Questions around families being able to cope, experiencing hardship or needing to use foodbanks simply do not appear. There is however copious data about people’s job searches and their attitudes to work.

The result is that if you ask how strongly claimants agree with the statement "any job is better than none” the DWP can give you full and detailed answers. Ask whether those same families can feed their children and the silence will be deafening.

A benefit system is always a balancing act between competing principles. Overall cost, incentivising work and ensuring that families have enough money have always been set against each other. Universal Credit strikes a new balance emphasising lower costs and work incentives. These necessarily come at the expense of providing an adequate income.

Churches are seeing some of the human consequences of this new balance. Some impacts, such as the run on foodbanks, can be counted. We also hear stories of families needing help to get nappies for newborns, or unwell folk walking for hours to get to the Jobcentre because they cannot afford a bus.

Today these people’s experiences are being brushed under the carpet – but it is these people’s voices that must be heard if we are to stop Universal Credit pushing families towards foodbanks.

The Budget announcement of a few billion and further delays will not rescue Universal Credit.

A properly funded functioning benefit system has the potential to enable people held back by poverty to reach their full potential. However, this is impossible in families that are simply focusing on finding their next meal. The principle of preventing hardship must be reintroduced.

Universal Credit needs a comprehensive overhaul where genuine poverty experts – those who face poverty every day – are included in the process. This is not an impractical pipe dream – Scotland’s experience panels are already helping design the new Scottish Social Security System.

I do not know what the result of such a redesign would be but I do know that by tackling hunger and listening to those affected by the benefit system we have a much better chance of releasing the enormous potential that Universal Credit increasingly locks away.

Rev Dr Richard Frazer is the Convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council