Universal credit.

[OriginallyfromLA]

I don't claim benefits but I'm trying to understand why UC is such a bad thing. Is it because it puts the onus on the claimant to manage their money? Or because it's late making people struggle until they get into a routine of when their payments will come?

klutzy.

I am so scared of this situation and I don't know what to do. It's truly awful. Sorry you are going through the same thing.

I know creepy it seriously feels like homelessness isn't far away.

If they sanction you on UC they're not taking away spare cash, they're taking rent money, food out of kids mouths and money for heat and light.

The government know, the government have been told by the UN they're going gainst human rights.

The government don't care.

People watch the benefit bashing shows and read the newspapers or watch Jeremy Kyle and that forms opinion
Then people that have never been hungry, never known poverty or hardship etc they vote in the ones that'll punish the poor because they think poverty is a choice.

Ever hear someone talk about benefit claimants and they say,
"Just get a job"
Guaranteed, they're fuckin idiots.

Being on UC is terrible.

I was made redundant in July after finding out I was pregnant with DC2.

A joint claim (partner works ft but min wage) and we half own with mortgage and half rent our home which the UC system seemed to find really difficult to understand.
I wasn't paid for over 2 months so had to take out an advance which I'm now paying back at £60 a month out of my UC.

They make you feel worthless and stupid on the phone and one person actually told me to 'shut up and let her speak' when I got upset on the phone after not being paid for 8 weeks.

I would love for these big politicians who thought this system up to live with this stress and anxiety for a while.

The stress of all this is making this pregnancy a million times harder.

The whole thing is DEEPLY misogynist and Disablist yet TM claims to be a feminist and Christian!

This. JRM claims to be Christian, too, but he appears to have skipped the Gospels.

Its very easy for you to sit there and not see a problem when it doesn't affect you personally, I suppose.
A lot of people don't claim benefits.(myself included), but Can still see that UC is nothing to hop on one leg and wave a green flag about. I was always told to keep my feet firmly on the ground as you never know what's waiting around the corner.

Firstly. Its a six week wait for any money. You can ask for an advance but it has to be paid back and its a bloody big deduction that they take.

All very well saying It teaches people to manage their money, but Some people will never be able to manage money. Its a skill which not everyone has, unfortunately
The way under the old system. Housing Benefit was paid directly to the LL it is now paid to the Claimant and they have to pay it to the LL.
Now imagine giving that sort of money to an addict or even if someone's DC needs a pair of shoes or coat. That say £50 will put them in serious rent arrears.

Even those in work but in receipt of WTC could face sanctions because apparently its their fault that this cunting Government allows big fat cat bosses to pay people a pittance which is the reason why they need WTC in the first instance, but They (The Government) can't fight the rich boys and girls, so They target Joe Public. That's a bully for you, though.
How true this next bit is I'm not 100% sure but. Those on WTC still have to go to the JC each week. Thus having to get time off. That won't piss bosses off leading to redundancies ect when there are sacking matches and staff cuts, will it.

People who need Childcare now have to pay it out of their own wages and Then they can claim it back. Which is all well and good. However they still have to have to it to give and Childcare isnt cheap and not everyone has a fit healthy active retired or even willing mother and father to look after their kids, do they. I was ridiculously lucky as childcare never cost me a penny. My family rallied around. However as I've alluded to not everyone has that luxury.
There has been cases of people having to give up work as they can't afford the childcare and have had problems getting the money reimbursed.

Haven't RTT but wanted to add, my daughter claims UC. She had an interview with her advisor; afterwards he told her she had to log in to her online diary to say she's attended the meeting or she'd be sanctioned. Not a problem at all for a computer literate young woman with access to broadband, but it's plainly obvious it's put in place to just create unnecessary obstacles. I don't understand why attending your interview with the verification of the advisor isn't enough proof?

@whatsthestory123 I was thinking the same.

@ whatstheatory and toolazy.
Same here.
Good on the French I say for having the guts to stand up and fight back to the big rich toffs.

JRM says he's against abortions.
Yet its his Government's 2 child policy which is forcing many people into abortions, and not because they don't want the child, but because they just can't afford it.
Yes I know there is plenty of contraceptives people can take. However it can fail, can't it.
Very very very easy for him born with a diamond spoon in his mouth to be against abortions.

"People watch the benefit bashing shows and read the newspapers or watch Jeremy Kyle and that forms opinion
Then people that have never been hungry, never known poverty or hardship etc they vote in the ones that'll punish the poor because they think poverty is a choice.

Ever hear someone talk about benefit claimants and they say,
"Just get a job"
Guaranteed, they're fuckin idiots." So true!

A few years back my dad was criticising my sister (Lp with 3 kids, we're Nc for other reasons but on this she really was doing her best) for not getting a job quickly enough once her youngest was of an age (he thought) to go to childcare. He was banging on "there's plenty of jobs I see them in the paper" so... I went through with them ALL the jobs in the paper -

Either:

my sister wasn't qualified/trained/experienced enough to meet even the min requirements. Some of these jobs my father was familiar with what they involved and was shocked the employers were making such ridiculous demands for nmw/low paid jobs. I also had to explain to him that the local college no longer provided the training for certain jobs due to cuts.

OR

They were temp roles - even under the old benefits system this was impossible because they stop your money as soon as you start work! BUT when you finish the contract it takes several months to get benefits reinstated which would mean she'd no money to pay rent/bills.

OR

They were zero hours contracts - as well as no guaranteed work from week to week impossible to arrange childcare and no money to have childcare in place "just in case"

OR

Shifts - either rolling (childcare nightmare again) or eve/weekends/nights which unless she could have afforded an au pair/nanny (she couldn't obviously, she also didn't have a spare bedroom for one), again no childcare - and she'd never see her kids!

OR

over 2 hours away by train. Again childcare, transport costs & time plus she'd be knackered!

I then took him through the online ads as he was like "well I don't do computers but I've heard there's loads online" whereby I was able to point out not only the SAME jobs just advertised in multiple places, but any extra there were, all the above same issues. Plus I was able to show him the counter that some jobsites have saying how many have applied for each job - several had over 300 applicants for ONE position!

He did then "get it" and apologised to my sister next time he saw her for giving her a hard time and said if there was anything he or mum could do to help to ask.

Since then he's also stopped assuming the msm/press is accurate (it was an involved conversation) and asks me or my sis or mum or even bro (a man of few words) about certain things. Bro is a police officer and there were a few news items that made dad think police were being lax in certain areas. Bro soon put him straight on the effects of the cuts to the police force!

Certain "Friends" I had from FB (from school) made some stupid comments, these are people I KNOW have never struggled, are in good health etc. I've unfriended several it just gets tiresome.

One USED to be a bit like that - until a friend of hers committed suicide due to the difficulties with switching to UC left her about to become homeless.

A few others who previously didn't consider themselves "benefit scroungers" as were working and on tax credits, or who have recently become sick/disabled who've been put on UC have done HUGE about face on several issues.

"I would love for these big politicians who thought this system up to live with this stress and anxiety for a while." I've said before I think ANYONE wanting to be an MP should do 6 months in social housing on the minimum benefits level before they're allowed to "apply". Soon sort the wheat front the chaff!

"JRM claims to be Christian, too, but he appears to have skipped the Gospels." That man is a vile excuse for a human being! He doesn't have the excuse of being stupid he knows EXACTLY what these policies are doing and thinks it's right! He thinks poverty is a sin!

I WISH Jesus could do a day trip from heaven and tell the fake Christians "no! This is not what I meant and you damn well know it!"

"as you never know what's waiting around the corner." Also true. Not being on benefits isn't a virtue it's luck!

"but They (The Government) can't fight the rich boys and girls" they ARE the rich boys and girls! Or they're married to them!

I too think the French have the right bloody idea! We're far too apathetic in this country and I REALLY don't understand anyone lower than upper mc voting tory! I'd rather nobody did but I can understand people being selfish but if you're lower mc or worse off its self sabotage and makes no sense!

One thing I don't think anyone has mentioned is some councils will expect UC claimants to pay council tax from their UC as it includes housing element (which is lowered to the lowest 30% as opposed to local housing allowance which was set at 33%) thus in some areas (like mine) that means the income is above £73.10 a week they set as the income limit for council tax benefit so claimants are also finding they must pay council tax out of UC as well.

It cannot be got around as council tax rules are local to each authority.

On a forum I use for people with disabilities someone recently moved and got an unexpected council tax bill and thinking it was a mistake applied to be told they "earnt" too much on UC to qualify. They posted expecting it to be a mistake. It is not. They're in the UC equivilent of support group yet they're being hounded to go to the jobcentre centre and look for work - they missed one due to illness and didn't arrange for the appointment to be in hospital and lost their money, yes being in hospital is no reason to cancel your meetings now, they can and will visit you there.

A lot of jobcentre staff don't understand (training issue) that support group means incapable of work because everyone must sign a commitment to look for work. If you don't no UC.

We've one jobcentre now and I live in a rural area with minimal public transport - think buses and trains for school children. You can't get from most of the county within an hour to the jobcentre. I heard the other day you can't even have your preliminary interview for UC in then county any more as their not a jobcentre plus so you must travel to another county.

You can't have any holidays on UC including in the uk and the health and wellbeing assessment (it might not be called that anymore!) is barbaric - where they ask disabled people what they spend their days doing and then how that can feed into a job, if they don't know suggestions are made, which then in turn effects their claim - I'm aware of someone who lost their disability element of UC because of what they put on that form directly contradicting what was on their UC50 form and no it wasn't overturned at appeal.

Some people are greatly helped with their mental health by undertaking hobbies e.g. In some areas there are art groups in mind centres for example - that would create a problem under the health and wellbeing assessment as it would show the person could concentrate, use pens/pencils, get out of the house for a couple of hours or drama groups - which was what happened to this person who thought doing such things on advice from a cpn/psychiatrist to regain functioning was a good thing found themselves losing their money and forced into looking for work full time. I've no idea what happened to them. They never posted again, but I know others it's happened to.

Sorry that was long, and apologies for spelling/grammar I meant to preview not post!

Brilliant post, Graphista.
Also glad you put your dad in his place

Becca- yes that is what has happened to me. I know have to pay full council tax £80 out of my already small UC. I honestly don't know what I am going to do. I do not have this money, the council said it isn't their problem it is what is due and they will recover it.

creepy and if you don't pay they will pass it to debt collectors and you can go to prison for it. It really pisses me off this isn't explained to people. It's a total postcode lottery. (Ha postcode autcocorrected to pisstake! Which it is).

People were happy it remained outside of UC but no one thought it would do so for this reason, it's a massive money saver for councils and more and more are doing it.

Another thing, those in the equivalent of support group are not exempt from UC, it's that part of their money which is exempt not the whole amount so still on UC.

In some ways it is simpler and better in that it is based on real time earnings each month so the amount you get can vary and adjust to what you have earned during your assessment period. this avoids the sometimes huge overpayments or underpayments that happened with tax credits which were calculated over what you earned over a year. the problems are the initial five week wait ( although you can get an advance payment), the reality that many people cannot budget for the month ( although they will give 2 weekly payments in some cases) and the fact that it is all done online which some vulnerable people cannot cope with. The fact that if you don't get paid monthly on the same day you can end up with no payment is a problem although people can plan for this if they know about it. There is also a problem that if you apply for an advance payment then deductions happen every month so you start off on a bad footing with less. These things always hit the most vulnerable the hardest as they have nothing to fall back on. I do however think the press are making out that everyone is worse off and having awful problems with Uc and this is frightening people. Many of my clients are better off and there are some positive things like the carers element which people can claim even if they work and earn too much to claim carers allowance.

Yep they'll send a poor person to prison for none payment of council tax to prison, but cunts who down load pictures of child abuse are given suspend sentences. Do not get me started on that.

Another problem I am seeing a lot of is EU citizens needing to go onto UC and failing the Habitual residency test ( which they didn't need to pass for legacy benefits) and this is leaving people with no income for weeks on end while they appeal. I have one client currently in this situation whose family has now been without income since April because of failing the HRT.

do they include child maintanance in UC

so you cant go on holiday now??

i still dont understand how they can get away with all this and the many many mistakes

Child maintainence is not included -- it has never been taken into account for most benefits.

And yes you can go on holiday as long as you stick to appointments and still do any work search requirements.

Saw this on FB today.
Looks like the sanction here is the full amount of basic UC. No indication if the person concerned would be getting anything else.
Over 3 months without that amount of money coming in - nearly £1200 altogether.
For missing one phone interview.

babyroobs those in areas, like mine, where council tax benefit have been stopped due to UC paying more than the basic £73.10 a week are worse off because they've that bill to pay which they didn't have before. In my area council tax benefit could be worth hundreds a month if you live in a house, a flat is just over £100 a month.

is it three months from letter that you have to claim

many thanks for all answers

Child maintenance is deducted if you don’t work or have an income from pensions Etc according to this
www.gov.uk/how-child-maintenance-is-worked-out/child-maintenance-and-universal-credit

Also currently under tax credits there is no savings limit but there is with UC, the same as there is currently for jsa esa etc.

This answers the holiday question www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/298762/response/727736/attach/2/FOI%204569%20reply.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1
You can go away but if a meeting is scheduled during your holiday you have to return for it