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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

Full digital UC to get live test in Sutton ...

hkrishna
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Welfare rights worker - CPAG in Scotland, Glasgow

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hkrishna
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Ros
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editor, rightsnet.org.uk

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Thanks for that - have added a link to the ComputerWeekly.com article to today’s rightsnet news story on the new regs -

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/news/story/amendments-to-universal-credit-rules-for-areas-where-dwp-is-to-test-new-dig

Jon Blackwell
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hkrishna - 04 November 2014 02:39 PM

The legislation to go with it:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2887/pdfs/uksi_20142887_en.pdf

I guess this will require a further commencement order as well.

I’m sure the timing has nothing to do with the SoS’s meeting with the select committee tomorrow morning.  Part district SM5 2 has a total population of around 11,000 so I don’t think they’re going to be terribly busy. 

 

 

hkrishna
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Further commencement orders and regulations alluded to in explanatory memorandum.

Mike Hughes
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Drilling down through those documents you end up with this fascinating read.

https://gdsdata.blog.gov.uk/universal-credit-service-assessment

Interesting to note that there is a proposal to move from self-hosting to cloud based storage. Wonder if claimants will be asked where they would prefer their personal data stored? Don’t answer that.

Also interesting to note there’s little flesh on the bones of this so called pilot. The digital element is spectacularly vague. Have we added a “Save” button to the application process? Do staff no longer need to print the spreadsheet and manually do the calculation? 😊

Love the language about progress. Totally ignores the IT scrapped so far and getting through the “alpha” stage appears to mean little more than “you appear to have gathered the right people and have a generally correct idea of what you’re doing”.

Should be fascinating to watch this unravel. Sorry, I meant to say progress 😊

The web analytics element is also interesting in relation to claimant commitment. Just how long did you linger on Universal Mismatch and gather malware on your home PC?

Jon Blackwell
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hkrishna - 05 November 2014 09:50 AM

Further commencement orders and regulations alluded to in explanatory memorandum.

Commencement order has now arrived (just in time for next week’s trial start)...

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/3094/contents/made

... there’s no equivalent of the gateway conditions (so almost all new claims for working-age benefits in SM5 2 would have to be for UC). The order only seems to cover new claims made between 26 November to 20 December (at least for the moment) - am I reading that correctly? Presumably they’ll need a bit longer than that to get a reasonable sample for testing?

 

 

 

[ Edited: 21 Nov 2014 at 06:28 pm by Jon Blackwell ]
HB Anorak
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That seems to be right yes.

DWP gave a presentation to social landlords with housing stock in that area recently and said that the test project would run for six months, with about 300 live cases expected.  Maybe they want a temporary shutdown over Christmas and New Year because staff will be on leave and some of the partner organisations delivering support etc might not even be open.  If so you would expect a second commencement order from about 5 January.

Just thinking of what the the “triggers” for a UC claim would be and I can think of the following:

- new claim for any working age benefit having not previously been getting one at all
- a renter moves into that area
- new out-of-work claim by someone previously receiving in-work benefits
- new in-work claim by someone previously receiving out-of-work benefits
- any change in out-of-work status such as would previously have required the claimant to switch between IS, JSA and ESA
- new CTC claim by anyone who has their first child and is not already on WTC (transitional provision allows CTC to be added to existing WTC award)

Jon Blackwell
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HB Anorak - 24 November 2014 09:51 AM

That seems to be right yes.

DWP gave a presentation to social landlords with housing stock in that area recently and said that the test project would run for six months, with about 300 live cases expected.  Maybe they want a temporary shutdown over Christmas and New Year because staff will be on leave and some of the partner organisations delivering support etc might not even be open.  If so you would expect a second commencement order from about 5 January.

Would that mean that potential claimants who’d be much better off on legacy benefits ( e.g. those who’d qualify for SDP) should wait until the gap? ( If there is one.)

 

 

Gareth Morgan
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Would that be deprivation - ‘money available on application’?

Daphne
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Specific UC guidance for claimants in Sutton -

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/381007/uc-and-your-claimant-commitment-sutton.pdf

not spotted anything revelationary yet - you can view your claimant commitment online on your UC account - is that new?

WillH
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I’ve noticed that Sutton Jobcentre isn’t on the gov.uk list of Jobcentre areas where you can claim UC.

https://www.gov.uk/jobcentres-where-you-can-claim-universal-credit

Unless, perhaps, it has a different name? That’s possible, I’m not a south London Jobcentre expert.

The other reason of course could because you can only make claims until 20th December (ie Saturday). So even if it was on there, it would have to come off within the next 2 days. But I did think it was odd, and have queried it with the DWP, as not putting it on the list might possibly reduce the number of claimants even further??