Universal credit will undermine volunteering?

Volunteering England has raised concerns that the introduction of universal credit could be more restrictive on volunteering opportunities than current benefit regulations.

They note that universal credit claimants will be placed in one of four groups:

* no work related requirements;
* work focused interviews only;
* work preparation; or
* all work related requirements.

The fourth group - the ‘all work related requirements group’ – will be those deemed ready to work. It is the only one to which the apparent restriction on volunteering applies. Claimants in this group will be expected to spend the same amount of time looking or preparing for work as it had been assessed they could reasonably be expected to work. That amount of time could be up to 35 hours per week, but it could be considerably less.

This is a significant change; currently, there is no specified amount of time a claimant is expected to look or prepare for work, which also means there is no regulatory restriction on the amount of volunteering a claimant can do. Therefore, whilst claimants in the first three groups would have no restrictions placed on their volunteering, those in the ‘all work related requirements group’ will have the amount of time available to them to volunteer restricted by up to 17.5 hours a week.

For the whole article, see Universal Credit regulations: restricting volunteering?

So much for Cameron’s “Big Society” then. Looks like volunteering will only be for little old ladies, or people unable to qualify for means tested benefits. Maybe ESA WRAG claimants after 365 days??
AH! it all makes sense now!

Re your previous post, the four (4) new groups that people will be put in are….
* no work related requirements;
* work focused interviews only;
* work preparation; or
* all work related requirements.

Currently people on JSA,ESA or IB can do paid work on these benefits subject to restricrtions. Can any of the the NEW 4 groups above carry out any work ie will each group have some sort of disregard that they can earn etc. Many thanks!

It won’t be as straightofrward as currently, but yes, the proposed regulations (http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/uc-draft-regs-2012-memorandum.pdf) say earnings up to a certain amount will be disregarded, then benefits will be reduced to take account of earnings by taper:

Disregards

133. Universal Credit will allow people moving into work to keep some of the money members of the household earn before it has any impact on the amount of Universal Credit they receive – this amount is called the earnings disregard.

134. Different amounts will be disregarded from earnings for different household types in order to reflect their different needs and to support the aim that work pays. The rates of the disregards will be set in line with Government spending commitments as the plans for the transition to Universal Credit are developed.

135. Disregards will be set at different levels for each of the following groups:

• single people and couples without children;
• lone parents with one or more children;
• couples with one or more children; and
• disabled singles or couples.

136. Only one earnings disregard, whichever is highest, is to be available in each household.

137. Claimants in receipt of housing support are to have a higher award of Universal Credit than those with low or no housing costs. In order to address this and target resources fairly, we intend to allow those claimants with no support with their housing costs to keep more of their earnings. We intend to do this by setting higher earnings disregards for households with no housing costs compared to those with housing costs. (This is a simplification of the policy set out in the Universal Credit Briefing Note 14 of reducing the level of a household’s earning disregard by 1.5 for every pound of housing support the household received.)

138. The exact amount of these minimum earnings disregards will be finalised closer to implementation of Universal Credit.

Earnings Taper

139. A taper is the rate at which benefit is reduced to take account of earnings. A simplified single taper is at the heart of the design of Universal Credit.

140. Currently there are different taper rates operating throughout the benefit and Tax Credit system. The interaction between these tapers can mean that people have very little incentive to work more hours or to aspire towards a pay rise as they see only a few pence more in their pockets as a result. They also mean that very few people are confidently able to predict the effect on their household income of taking up a job, with the result that many do not bother.

141. The taper or withdrawal rate is expected to be set at 65 per cent. In simple terms, that would mean that 35 pence in every pound earned would be kept; meaning that claimants would be £35 better off for every extra £100 of net earnings. Significantly this means that many people in work would receive substantially more support than under the current benefits system. The taper will be applied to earnings net of tax, National Insurance and pension contributions.

Many thanks for your reply but can you confirm whether persons on UC because of eg limited capability for work or lone parents with a child under 12 months are able to do any paid work at all even without reaching their maximum disregards as well as people who will be on the UC JSA equivalent?