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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

20 year Prophecy…...... 

Rehousing Advice.
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Homeless Unit - Southampton City Council

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Total Posts: 637

Joined: 16 June 2010

“We are now at a point were the benefit system is, as others have remarked, not fit for purpose.  It is complex, labyrinthine, replete with means testing, administratively unwieldy, laboriously over regulated and governed by narrow policy objectives tailored toward pleasing and profiting the narrow economy and private contractors for services, while the less said about the various idiotic software systems and ludicrously inept contact centres the better.

No doubt , change is needed it is just that the system has undergone so much change over the last twenty years or so that people feel overwhelmed by its pace and cynical as to outcomes.  People question, and rightly so in my view, the motives of those driving the change as so often the blame for being unemployed, sick, disabled or poor has been laid on claimants rather than the political and economic system that creates those problems which have led to social breakdown.

Not many of us are holding our breaths for the brave new world to come.  Something tells me we will still be here in another twenty years time talking about the same problems, re-inventing timeworn solutions and still blaming the victims.  Those who fail to learn from history will be condemned to repeat it.

God, I’m depressed now!  I need a beer”.

That was Nevip 9 years ago…….on a white paper for something called Universal Credit…

Dan_Manville
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Mental health & welfare rights service - Wolverhampton City Council

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God I’m depressed now!

Rehousing Advice.
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Homeless Unit - Southampton City Council

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Total Posts: 637

Joined: 16 June 2010

“Universal Credit: welfare that works marks the beginning of a new contract between people who have and people who have not. At its heart, Universal Credit is very simple and will ensure that work always pays and is seen to pay.
Universal Credit will mean that people will be consistently and transparently better off for each hour they work and every pound they earn. It will cut through the complexity of the existing benefit system to make it easier for people to get the help they need, when they need it. By utilising tried and proven information technology, we will streamline the system to reduce administration costs and minimise opportunities for error or fraud.”

Introduction to the white paper Universal Credit……..Nov 2010