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Latest press reports on UC
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09q09y1/victoria-derbyshire-30012018
Sanctions featuring Dr David Webster, Prof Peter Dwyer, Dr Sharon Wright and some very badly treated claimants. Listen to what Webster says ....
DWP lying about SDP again:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/04/universal-credit-faces-judicial-review
This time, there is transitional protection available apparently.
Government’s Universal Credit payments will be seamless, vows Minister
Oh well that’s OK then - we can all relax now - everything’s sorted…
Struggling jobseekers who forget their username or password have to attend a face-to-face appointment to have them reset under the government’s bungled Universal Credit system, it was revealed today.
Universal Credit leaves thousands of Londoners in rent arrears
More than 70% of council tenants in London on Universal Credit are in rent arrears, the BBC has found. Universal Credit, the government’s flagship new benefit scheme, has been rolled out in eight London boroughs. As of January nearly 10,000 council tenants claiming Universal Credit owed money for rent.
In Tower Hamlets 81% of council tenants on the benefit have fallen into rent arrears.
John Biggs, mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: “The introduction of Universal Credit is pushing Tower Hamlets families into poverty. This Government policy means people are struggling to pay bills and put food on the table, which is simply not acceptable.”
The DWP spokesman said: “The best way to help people pay their rent and to improve their lives is to support them into work. Under Universal Credit people are moving into work faster and staying in work longer than the old system.”
Universal Credit leaves thousands of Londoners in rent arrears
The DWP spokesman said: “The best way to help people pay their rent and to improve their lives is to support them into work. Under Universal Credit people are moving into work faster and staying in work longer than the old system.”
Those clients I am working with and in whose appeals I am representing who have been forced to give up jobs that they were doing successfully for a number of years because UC cannot get their childcare costs right might beg to differ.
Universal credit: Government to publish internal reviews of controversial benefit in new U-turn
Universal credit: Government to publish internal reviews of controversial benefit in new U-turn
‘[The 2015 MPA review] said the UC target operating model had a “core assumption” that Verify would deliver 90% compliance for online identity checking, a figure based on plans from the Government Digital Service, (GDS), which develops Verify.
However, Computer Weekly revealed last month that currently only 35% of UC users can set up a Verify account online, 30% are not able to, and the remaining 35% could use Verify but do not. Use of Verify is vital to the full UC digital service due to be rolled out to Jobcentres nationwide by the end of this year.
If the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is unable to achieve targets for online identity verification, it is likely to place an extra workload on Jobcentre staff for face-to-face identity hecks, meaning much higher running costs than anticipated. If only 35% of benefit claimants successfully use Verify, it could mean hundreds of thousands of people requiring additional help to apply.’
We really are in danger of jumping the shark now…..
Reverse universal credit cuts, Iain Duncan Smith tells chancellor
The former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has warned the chancellor that he risks undermining the whole purpose of welfare reform if he fails to reverse cuts to universal credit (UC) in his spring statement.
Philip Hammond is under mounting pressure from across the party to use better than expected tax revenues to reverse cuts made after the 2015 election. Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that 340,000 people could be taken out of poverty by reversing the cuts to work allowances.
More than half of new Universal Credit claimants in homes owned by a social housing provider in Plymouth are struggling to pay their rent.
More than 550 people who rent from Plymouth Community Homes are now claiming the new benefit with many falling into arrears, chiefly because of a six-week wait before payments are made.
Liz Phillips, the organisation’s head of housing operations, told city councillors: “We were on 550 though 320 are in arrears, so it is a serious position.”
She said the average amount of rent arrears for people claiming universal credit was £460, compared to £190 for tenants not reliant on the new benefit, and many would never catch-up with the debt.
Universal Credit claimants in Plymouth are struggling to pay rent
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-43432715
Food bank use ‘could rise after universal credit roll-out’
A spokesman said: “Universal credit lies at the heart of our commitment to help people improve their lives.’
Hmmm; yeah.
http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Universal-Credit-How-did-it-go-so-wrong
Interesting summary.
Blimey. You couldn’t make it up. And still the DWP deny they have a problem.
Cost overruns rising from £2 billion to more than £12 billion, missed targets for implementation left, right and centre. And that’s just the IT.
Humpty Dumpty (mostly composed of IS) sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall (and then in slow motion broke into several large pieces - JSA, ESA, PC etc).
All IDS’s horses and all IDS’s men (represented by taxpayers money) couldn’t stick Humpty together again (let along try, at the same time, to intergrate him with HB and TCs in a sort of sci-fi / horror movie attempt to create an all powerful single living organism (Frankenstein?) by cloneing Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
Oh and there were some bits left over that didn’t seem to fit in the rhyme anymore anyway (ESA & JSA(C)).
No walls were harmed in the making of this rhyme.
No you couldn’t make it up!
[ Edited: 28 Mar 2018 at 01:44 pm by Peter Turville ]
A DWP spokesperson said: “The minimum income floor encourages people who aren’t earning enough through self-employment to grow their business or take on more hours in other employment.
“Universal credit is a flexible benefit that supports people in and out of work, those on low incomes and the self-employed, and it’s succeeding. We know that people on universal credit are moving into work quicker and staying in work longer than under the old system.”
So, they trot out the same, tired, discredited defence as they stare disaster in the face. But in DWP Happy Land, this is not a disaster, it’s encouragement and opportunity.
Disabled people losing out on £2,000 a year because of Universal Credit begin legal action
Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/universal-credit-disabled-court-case/
A DWP spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting people into work while making sure the right care is in place for those that can’t. Unlike the previous system, Universal Credit is more targeted and support is focused on those who need it most. Transitional protection is also available for those people who move onto UC from other benefits, provided their circumstances stay the same.”
Er…...no it isn’t.
And the stuff about targeted support is a fib too, as we all know - that’s what the flippin’ case is about!!!!!!
More about the Judicial Review in the High Court at the moment regarding SDP, disability discrimination and transitional protection:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/vulnerable-sick-hungry-devastating-testimonies-12475502
UC risks crushing self-employed and startups
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-44131317
Universal Credit: Benefit ‘flaw’ penalises Derry mother
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-44131317
Universal Credit: Benefit ‘flaw’ penalises Derry mother
Do the DfC use the same response as DWP:
“Universal credit is transforming people’s lives. It is a flexible benefit that supports people in and out of work, those on low incomes and the self-employed, and it’s succeeding. We know that people on universal credit are moving into work quicker and staying in work longer than under the old system.”
Or do they have their own version?
Note the deft employment of DWP off-the-shelf excuse #3457 - that any criticism is out of date and everything is hunky dory after some footling changes or other that have had to be levered out of DWP with a crowbar and castor oil.
Note also DWP off-the-shelf excuse #3450, that people are moving in to work more quickly etc - this in itself is of course out of date and discredited, but what the hell, eh?