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It will take ‘decades to optimise’ universal credit
In evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee this morning, former DWP Minister Lord Freud said that it will take ‘decades to optimise’ universal credit
Hopefully the transcript will be available soon, but in the meantime ....
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/6911af5e-eb1c-478e-b3fb-d26b28ab5997
... and from the guardian:
Former welfare minister Lord Freud has admitted to MPs that administrative problems and design issues with universal credit are causing around one in four low-income tenants to run up rent arrears, putting them at risk of eviction.
Freud, who has overseen the development of universal credit over the past six years, also suggested that the long formal waiting times faced by claimants before they receive a first payment when they move on to the new benefit should be shortened.
So - having defended this crass system and waved through its worst aspects, he now repines, if only a little bit? The joys of retirement….
What does ‘optimise’ mean in this context? ‘To make work even faintly efficiently’? ‘Decades’, eh???? That’s in addition to the decade that it is due to take to get full roll-out?
UC is becoming increasingly indefensible.
Apparently, universal credit is needed to tackle the ‘over-comfortable safety net’ that is the benefit system ....
Ah, UC, the anti-homeless spikes of the benefit world….
Note the report says UC ‘collapses all benefits into one’ - not helpful to give that impression. Too many JC staff believe that,never mind the public.
Now if it had just stopped at ‘UC collapses’........
‘When I left ... I was looking at figures that said there was a problem. There was a proportion of people – probably around a quarter – where universal credit was having an effect on arrears ...
The quoted words leaves the impression that he had only just found out, this is a tad remarkable given the warnings that came from Crisis,Shelter, Housing Assicaitions, Landlord Associations etc (maybe we are to conclude there was widespread silo working?) .....but still, he gives the impression that he was now onto this huge design problem, unfortuately just at the time of his departure.
It does make me woder about the effectiveness of pilots and test and learn…...
The quoted words leaves the impression that he had only just found out, this is a tad remarkable given the warnings that came from Crisis,Shelter, Housing Assicaitions, Landlord Associations etc (maybe we are to conclude there was widespread silo working?) .....but still, he gives the impression that he was now onto this huge design problem, unfortuately just at the time of his departure.
It does make me woder about the effectiveness of pilots and test and learn…...
Well he certainly knew something about it in July 2016 ...
This from rightsnet news:
Rent arrears for universal credit claimants are ‘much higher than we expected’, admits Lord Freud
So he is admitting now that when he stood up time and time again in the Lords, insisiting UC was “on track and on budget”, he was lying?
Revolting individual!
Link to a Channel 4 news piece 07/02/2017 re Universal Discredit’s impact in Sedgemoor across in Somerset (doesn’t tell us anything we don’t know already but still worth a look).
https://www.channel4.com/news/benefits-shake-up-causing-rent-arrears
Committee chairman Frank Field said: “Clearly, there are some basic features of its design that give universal credit the unintended effect of pushing some poorer households towards the twin horrors of eviction and homelessness.”
That is precisely the reason that we have consultation, pilots and test and learn, and committess to scrutinise the governmnet of the day.
The question has to be asked why a minister and a powerful Committee Chair, both were unable to grasp these basic design flaws.
Maybe it is beccause the make-up of these important committees means they are simply now unable to perform a scrutiny function.
The tragedy is this will result now in thousands of evictions. There were warning signs everywhere. Yet the government of the day and parliament were both in denial about the basics being all wrong.
This is from slide 19 from Paul Gregg’s powerpoint presentation at a Nawra meeting in Bristol March 2011 roughly 8 months after the MP for Chingford announced his creation. So the basic design challenges should/would have been apparent to Freud et al at the very least.
Universal Credit
2. Simplification
Huge administrative upheaval
Most people will claim single benefit but may additional benefits still in the system
The Uni credit will be very complex once childcare, passported benefits, unearned income rules, permitted work rules etc etc
I was intriged when, responding to the questions about those claimant groups who would be worse off compared to legacy benefits (due to the non-existance of SDP etc in UC), Freud was explaining that they would in fact be better off because of other aspects of UC (moves hands in a balancing scales motion).
I’ve been looking through my CPAG handbook desperately looking for what I (and the committee members) have so obviously missed!
All I seem to read at the moment, and from numerous claimants, is that the UC claim is ending the day before the next payment is due. UC staff have no idea why; all they can do is to construct a temporary manual claim to ensure some payment is made although usually not the housing costs. They can manage this with the low numbers now but with the major rollout due this year? I have been told the IT is collapsing…..problems with the link to HMRC….but we knew this. A comment on the Guardian article is exactly what I have been reading….but no-one is prepared to take responsibility at Any level it seems.
“It’s not just the wait for the initial payment that is the issue, I’ve had my UC case closed on more than occasion - meaning no automatic payment - so you have to ring the 0345 number, chase it all up, then I was told the last time it was closed that people’s claims are being closed and they aren’t sure why (!), so then you have to ring every month to ask them to do a manual payment until your claim is put back on the system. Every time it’s closed I just get a letter usually the day before it’s normally due telling me it’s been closed without any explanation. I’m too ill to work at the moment and it’s extra stress I can do without.
__________________
The DWP research he referred to was published over a year ago and referred to a phone survey of 1,800 benefit claimants conducted between November 2014 and March 2015. It shows that the percentage of the 900 universal credit claimants surveyed who said they were in rent arrears fell from 48% to 33% after three months.
So Freud refernces old research which must be from the “old” UC (which largely prevented people with housing costs from claiming in the first place) and says don’t worry because only 33% of people are in rent arrears after 3 months?
ONLY 33% OF PEOPLE!!!! And that’s a good thing. We really have gone down the rabbit hole haven’t we?
It took successive governments best part of three decades to ‘optimise’ Income Support and look (down Paul’s rabbit hole) where that led us!
I am currently playing Comedy by Shack in my head. This is “optimise” as in “get maybe one component up and running by automated digital technology as opposed to be manually inputted onto a spreadsheet that we’re pretending no longer exists.”
May I point that Universal Credit is being delivered on time and on budget? Work is the best way out of poverty and by ensuring that work pays this government is rewarding those who can work, whilst targeting help to the most vulnerable etc, etc.
Have a good weekend everyone
I think I’ve found the DWP’s playbook - it’s the Dilbert cartoons.
WALLY: Are you leveraging our resources to optimize the client value stream?
ASOK: What?
WALLY: I’m just messing with you. Nothing I say in meetings actually means anything
ASOK: Then why do you talk?
WALLY: I tried listening once, it was awful.