To be absolutely fking sick of Universal Credit

It is an utter shambles. To cut a long story short, my husband and I went from being relatively well paid earners (in law and sales) to being on UC following a mixture of redundancy, covid, pregnancy/ mat leave and then becoming emergency foster carers for my niece and nephew.
My husband eventually set up his own business, but was frequently called in to discuss the business therefore losing money on that day 🤷🏻‍♀️
The amount of times they incorrectly stopped our payments, left us very low that month and then after accepting their wrong doing took months to reimburse us was ridiculous.
One advisor accused me of failing to attend a meeting until she remembered that it was her who had cancelled it due to the snow, whilst I was on my way up to DWP offices.
To name but a few of the problems we had. Not to mention how patronising and generally unkind they were. Some I would even class as bullies.
I genuinely believe they make the system as confusing as possible to force people out. There is one rule for service users and another for them.
They make it impossible to contact them and leave so many grey areas open to interpretation that it’s impossible to know where you stand.
I will say however, that the last two work coaches we both had we’re nothing but supportive, actually used their common sense and were very compassionate.
We’re now both self employed and no longer relying on it but I would definitely attribute my worst ever period of mental health directly to our involvement with Universal Credit.

An awful lot of things in UC are "at the discretion of the work coach" and not actually specified in regulations. There also doesn't seem to be any monitoring of work coaches' decisions, so it's like a bloody lottery. It makes it near impossible to advise people what they should be doing.

I work in welfare rights and there are 10 job centres in my "patch", but 90% of the UC problems I deal with come from just two of them. They seem to think their role is persecuting people, not helping them get back to work. Now I have enough examples, my manager is escalating this with the area manager.

It's just shit for people.

Similar happened to me, had an appointment, but then got a job and my first day on the job was the day of the appointment. They told me I still need to attend the appointment 😂

Sometimes they can be great tho. When I lost my job due to depression and triggered a work capacity assessment, UC had me come in for a health appointment and the coach was so warm and understanding. I was petrified they will accuse me of making it up or something and sanction me!

Well, that's spectacularly helpful. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. I assume you will be paying my bills for me then? Shall I send you my bank details?

Sounds like Tax Credits, which was a nightmare and caused overpayments left right and centre. UC is designed to be flexible month to month

The punishment is the process.

I had to go on for a few months a couple of years ago. I'm self employed and was moving 3hrs away so lost all my clients and had to start from scratch. Fine whatever. I just needed some support for a few months while I got my business back off the ground. They bang on about creating a good CV, had to go to a job fair - where the work coach came too so he could check we all went, and his friend had a tattoo shop in the local area with a tattoo apprenticeship going. He told me to go and hand my cv in there and then said 'I'll call him later to check you did'. I'm not interested in a bloody tattoo apprenticeship, I'm interested in getting some support after paying tax for years while I rebuild my business (it literally took me only 3 months!!) they say they won't force you into a job you don't want to do which is absolute bollocks. Every time I said no sorry I'm not interested in care work or tattooing it would be 'well a jobs a job you need to take it' I have a bloody job ffs it just needed time to regain clients to earn enough. I told them the days I worked and they'd always book for me to come in on the day I said I can't, then they'd say oh no worries we can do a telephone call at that time/day instead IM STILL AT WORK???!!! How professional and client building will being on call to UC during an appointment with a client. Idiots. Thank god I'm out of that now!

I remember being forced to go on a very basic how to find work course. Someone else there had already found a job and was due to start in two weeks, but he still had to attend this course to get his benefits. So much bloody box ticking.

Glad they’ve been able to cancel it.

I deal with benefits in my job and have come across this before. In this instance, I honestly thought the work coach was doing it deliberately to be awkward for them.
The wording online says combined - shouldn’t matter if it’s from just one or both of the partners.

Didnt you know, when Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy ended the Vogons all went & got jobs at the DWP

Either/Or they are all revolutionary Marxists who want to wind people up so much we end up with a revolution

I think it's a good system if your claim is straightforward/ you're not working and just on a fixed amount each month but does seem to cause a lot of issues for some working people especially self employed. It is better being able to do things by the journal as long as someone actually answers queries. Other DWP departments are an absolute nightmare. I tried to call ESA the other day on behalf of a vulnerable client. Was on hold an hour and they refused to speak to me despite me having written consent from him to speak on his behalf. They point blank refuses to let me email our service consent form and hung up on me after I'd been on hold an hour. The only option I now have is to go to client's home as he is housebound/ disabled, sit in his flat for an hour on hold so they will speak to me to try to sort out his benefit issues. I do understand confidentiality etc but surely them refusing to accept written consent is not acceptable.

Just add to say you’ve been reading common interview questions and practising answering them, you’ve been reading about possible career opportunities or courses you may like to try in the future. Writing some sample covering letters…

I had this once work overpaid me then underpaid the next month. I tried to explain in the journal but had to attend appointment. It lasted two minutes. Just put me back on light touch. Would review wages in next pay period and if they were back to normal I’d stay in light touch category.

Correct, it’s a huge waste of resources.
However, they don’t get a choice, they’ll just be following procedures given and unfortunately don’t get to use much discretion.

If earnings reported are not correct, UC need to follow a real time information dispute- they won’t allow you to just provide the evidence.

Don't get caught up in this , follow the advice you got on your own thread.👍

There’s lots of things people could just say they were doing.
Looking/applying for jobs
Interview preps
Checking for updates on applications made
editing CV
Researching potential carers

exaggerating how long it took them to fill in an application

But her earnings didn’t drop. Her employer made an error, which would have been corrected the following month. It wasn’t a drop in earnings.
That should not require a meeting. That should just require her to upload the evidence to her journal and that’s that.

They waste huge amounts of resources on these pointless meetings because they can’t use common sense.

You don’t have to do it on the day. For instance, I have to do mine on the 4th and my UC is paid on the 11th.
As long as you do it by the 11th, it’s paid. I usually got mine around the 6th or 7th. You don’t have to do it on the day.