Its a disgrace only 15,300 have signed the petition to scrap Universal Credit

[SingleMumFighting]

There is a petition to scrap universal credit which has been open since Nov 2018 on the government website. Only around 15,300 people have signed it. I only found out today. It will be removed by the end of May. Its not been mentioned in the main stream media.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/233127

[Asta19]

I didn't know about it. I've just signed it.

[NameChangeJustBecauseICan]

If people feel strongly enough about something they will go to the Govt Petitions website. The fact that they haven't shows that others don't care enough about the subject.

I presume some will lose out when transferring to UC otherwise no need to object to it. So, who will lose out and why?
(I just thought it was a system to consolidate a number of individual benefits, thereby reducing administrative cost).

[Isadora2007]

Some people actually benefit well from UC it’s not all evil

[TheGrey1houndSpeaks]

Evidently only 15,300 people have a problem with it?

[Tomtontom]

For anyone disputing the shitshower that is UC, please read this:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/15/universal-credit-colossal-catastrophe-national-audit-office

The NAO report is scathing, not just on the impact on claimants but on the massive administrative burden that UC brings with it. The cost of administering a claim is far more than that of previous benefits.

[Tomtontom]

The United Nations Special Envoy was equally scathing:

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/16/key-points-un-envoy-philip-alston-report-poverty-britain-uk

[Impartialerror]

I didn’t know about the petition either, have signed it.

[Tomtontom]

The system is described as "cruel and misogynistic":

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/16/welfare-system-cruel-misogynistic-un-expert-warns-damning-report/

[PlainSpeakingStraightTalking]

Fundamentally it is a good idea but poorly implemented.

[Cattucino]

Can anyone make the link clickable please?

[brodybear]

If people feel strongly enough about something they will go to the Govt Petitions website.

I don't think that's true for the majority. I feel strongly about list of things and it hasn't once crossed my mind to go there. Equally there are things I don't feel strongly about but I agree/disagree enough to sign a petition. Exposure is important.


OP I didn't know about it, thank you for posting. I have singed.

[buzzbobbly]

I only found out today.

Yet somehow you were magically expecting everyone else in the country to (a) know about it and (b) sign it?

[AnyaMumsnet]

Hi there all,

We're going to move this over to petitions now.

[PookieDo]

I don’t love UC but it is working far better for me now than going through the council for HB ever did. I don’t want to go back to councils fucking me over for thousands of £ again either
UC has been more irritating than awful

[SingleMumFighting]

I only found out today.

Yet somehow you were magically expecting everyone else in the country to (a) know about it and (b) sign it?

I expected to hear about it at least in the main stream media. This is such a big issue. It affects too very badly. I feel like it has been kept quiet on purpose.

[SingleMumFighting]

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/233127

[ThomasRichard]

I think UC is a good idea in principle. Having one claim to cover everything is a lot simpler to navigate than multiple systems. The implementation has been awful though.

[Amongstthetallgrass]

I didn’t know about this as I’m sure many many people don’t know either.

I’ve seen UC push people to the food banks and even worse not even be able to access them because of suspended accounts. It may work for a few but for a very large amount of people it’s been catastrophic and caused deaths.

Dreadful system

[PookieDo]

In my case it was the council who made my life a misery. They continually overpaid, did all the calculations incorrectly (despite me abiding by all my obligations to submit info), suspended payments and took weeks and weeks to respond to me. I ended up taking out a loan to pay them back and cancelled my own claim with them as I couldn’t take any more of it - they discovered a ‘system error’ (their error) dating back 8 years and landed me with a £2,000 bill.

UC has its flaws but it is more technologically advanced and much more simple SO FAR

I think what everyone needs to know is that none of these systems are very good and people suffer through incompetence and lack of understanding. It is not limited to UC

[SingleMumFighting]

The major flaw with UC is that if something goes wrong with your claim you are screwed. With the old system if one of your benefits fails you can use another to survive. Hence why so many people have gone to food banks or died.

[lavenderhedgehog]

More major flaws with UC -

If you make a claim for UC too close to your pay date, you will lose out on hundreds or even over a thousand a year UC (some months you will get no UC at all as it 'looks' to the system as if you have been paid double from work) compared to someone who makes the claim far away from their pay date. Four single mothers challenged this in the high court, UC was ruled as 'unlawful' , the judge described the system as 'irrational' and 'nonsensical', but the DWP are still seeking to appeal the ruling. So you have the crazy situation whereby two people with the EXACT same circumstances, number of DC and income and expenditure, can receive different UC amounts just because of the date they made the claim. See here -www.leighday.co.uk/News/2019/January-2019/High-Court-finds-DWP-unlawful-on-universal-credit

Childcare has to be paid upfront on UC before any reimbursement, which is a barrier to many in starting work. Also the caps on the amounts they will accept for childcare are not matched with the real cost of childcare. They reimburse UP TO 85% of £646 for one child or £1100 for 2 or MORE children a month. We all know that childcare can and does way way exceed those amounts easily, especially during summer holidays.

If you have any old debts they can be taken at 40% (!!) of the personal allowance - so 40% of your income to live on gone. They can even exceed this 40% if they want to.

Everyone claiming or changing to UC starts off in debt immediately. As you are just not paid for 5 weeks. You can take out a 'loan' from UC to live on for the 5 weeks, but then your payments are reduced for a year in order to pay back the loan.

These are just some of the reasons UC doesn't work, and pushes people into poverty and towards foodbanks. I wish there was more awareness of what Uc is doing to people.