New: UC postcode checker web tool

Hi –

As promised, we’ve been beavering away with the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group on building a universal credit postcode checker …. and were launching a beta version here for your feedback.

It would be great if you could spare a minute or two to have a look and let us know what you think. We’re planning to formally launch it in a week or so, and so if you can spot any gremlins or anything we could tweak in the interim, that would be fantastic.

In particular, it would be great if you could try searching on 2 or 3 postcodes and let us know if you think it’s not returning the right result for that area … plus do let us know if you spot anything amiss with our version of the gateway conditions or other explanatory text.

Here you go: http://universalcreditinfo.net

Thanks in advance … feel free to add any comments here, or Direct Message me or email us via .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Ps – If you can hang fire on circulating the link to the tool more widely until we’ve concluded this beta stage, that would be great.

Cheers - Shawn

Ps: other postcode checkers are available …. see for example this one from gov.uk

https://www.universal-credit.service.gov.uk/register/uc

Hi all -

Just a quick note to say that the Lasa/LITRG universal credit postcode checker is now officially live .... many thanks to those of you who provided feedback on the beta version.

Any help you can provide in sharing the link would be very much appreciated: http://universalcreditinfo.net

(... or, if you have a website or blog, why not grab our widget to add our postcode search to your site for your visitors to use? The widget’s available @ http://universalcreditinfo.net/about/widget)

Cheers - Shawn

Any ideas how to get the widget to work on a non self-hosted (Wordpress hosted in other words) Wordpress blog? Pasting the code into a page simply seems to produce a link rather than the widget.

Hi Mike -

The widget makes use of an iframe and I understand that wordpress can be a problem ...

Basically, if the site is hosted on wordpress.com, I don’t think it allows you to embed a widget ..... whilst if it’s self-hosted, it can be done using a plug-in (https://wordpress.org/plugins/search.php?q=iframe).

I do think however that we should make that clear on our widget page to save people the hassle of fiddling around trying to get it to work ... I’ll do that now.

Apologies ....

Cheers - Shawn

Hi again -

We’ve now updated our widget page: http://universalcreditinfo.net/about/widget

Cheers - Shawn

Brilliant!!

https://gmwrag.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/universal-credit-widget/

Equally responsively a paragraph has been added 😊

The DWP has now publicised details of its own postcode checker in the September issue of Touchbase:

As part of making a new Universal Credit claim online, a new postcode checker can now direct users to the right service for them.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/touchbase-dwp-news-about-work-working-age-benefits-and-services/august-2016-touchbase-edition-114