Call for evidence

City of Wolverhampton Council’s Welfare Rights Service are monitoring issues surrounding Universal Credit Full Service (UCFS) roll out to vulnerable groups.

We are particularly keen to hear examples of:

• problems with Work Capability Assessment group placement on natural migration from ESA; there are frequent reports of vulnerable people being subjected to full conditionality on migration due to a failure to treat new UC claimants as having LCW pursuant to reg 19(2) UC(Transitional Provisions) regs 2014;

• issues where people make claims with a med3 in support but are subjected to substantial conditionality before their WCA is cmpleted.

• issues where claimants are digitally excluded; especially issues around the Online Journal;

• sanctions due to inappropriate Work Related Activity, for instance involving activities that might not be achievable according to an individual’s Work Capability Assessment;

• issues where Jobcentre Plus might be expected to make reasonable adjustments for individual UC claimants; please note this will not stretch to WCA/Assessment Centre issues;

• delays to sanction decisions being made; is it lawful that an individual might be sanctioned for an alleged failure some months prior?

• Problems experienced by Care leavers making new claims to UCFS.

We hope to collate an extensive body of evidence to explore potential strategies to challenge themes or recurrent problems that arise.

If you have any examples please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and include UCFS in the subject bar.

Due to capacity individual requests for advice will not be replied to.