to be worried about Universal Credit

[idiuntno57]

I am in the lucky position of not needing to claim this but I am so worried about its implementation.

Its coming in in the Autumn and is going to be an online only, monthly, postdated payment. It will be paid to one adult in the family unit.

All well and did if you are god at managing your money, internet literate and in a stable relationship. But in the real world....

How are the most vulnerable in society going to have a chance with this?

Already the council tax changes are coming in and as far as I understand people are confused and shell shocked by it. UC is much bigger and no one is prepared.

Oh and a significant minority of my customers have not the slightest clue about operating a PC never mind owning one.
We refer to classes, but they are sporadic and cost money to get to. Oh and learning will take a long time if you don't have a home PC to practice on.
These are people who have worked all their days and never needed to use IT before as it was simply not relevant.
Now it is essential.

All anyone's doing, with their jobs, and their savings, and their insurance policies, and their mortgages and big houses etc etc, is MINIMISING the risk (and the effects) of the shit hitting the fan. They're not eliminating it. And sometimes, the brown stuff hits no matter what shields you've put in place.

This is what we need the welfare state and the NHS for.

if it wasn't so dire it would actually be hilarious how some people have just absoloutely, unquestioningly swallowed every tory word spouted.

what is it that stops people thinking for themselves? is it just too easy to be someone else's unpaid, unthinking mouthpiece?

I Need - I have to agree with you with food on the table - I relied completely on benefits for a time and DC never went without food.

Katie a lot of my clients can't use a computer either - even some of the younger ones.

Can I point out up thread someone said about uniform grant You only get this 2 times

When a child first goes fulltime school and again when them move up to high school thats all not every year.

I got it when my eldest was going to high school it covered 2 school jumpers with there logo that was only avaiable from the school. At the time I was a single mum due to marriage breakdown.

( I was doing a degree so was on benfits in the summertime) though further edcation I think is now harder to do due to all the cuts and price increases.

I know a good few people that are worried about the UC I live in one of the poilting towns these people work for angencys like I do work is scasre.

I asked my angecy to see if they could get me more work min wage nights weekends as one night shift a week was not enough I was told NO.

Loads of people I worked with have gone back onto benfits due to the same answer you sign up to other angencys and if you are luckey you may get work however in this town five angencys are not even trying to find people work one guy was told we sign you onto our books but we have no places to give you work we already have our own workers.

I and my dp DONT claim anything and we just make ends meat work IS sacare

I apply for jobs but get turned down I get told Im overquaifield. I applied for a min wage temp job of 20 hours a week which I got

I start work Monday for 3 weeks 9-1 mon to fri it will take me over a hour to get there in car
( no way of getting there any other way)
If my angency call me in for a night shift I will be saying yes as if I dont go my name goes to the bottom of list for further work. This is to show what people are coping with in everyday life

Lots of people are struggling now the UC will be a nightmare these people I work with if they work over 16 hours they sign off but the week later they sign back on again as no work.

One lad a hard worker has signed on and off again 6 times since Jan his housing benfit is a mess due to multi signs on/off its just going to get worst.

Yanbu I'm really concerned about uc, dp and I only claim cb but i think crime and desitution will be on the increase. I can also see a massive rise in prostitution.

I hate to admit it but a few months ago I was in line with the dm way of thinking but reading threads on mn has brought me back to reality.

The post about broth was fantastic and it's inspired me to see if we can start up a cooking on a tight budget scheme at my local sure start centre (it's in a deprived area)

stormybird if you know the tories are evil bastards who are going to reduce your benefits income, why on earth did you choose to get pregnant whilst they were in power?

Yeah, wannabe - that'd be a great idea.
I'm going to approach our nearest food bank and see if they make up recipe leaflets, and if not, could I knock some together.

Can I just ask - and yes, I've skimmed the thread but can't find the answer, sorry for just skimming...but, switching from weekly/bi-weekly to monthly...am I right in thinking that:

a) You may then have to wait up to a month for any money to come in after getting your last bi-weekly payment (the post dated bit?)

and

b) In reality, since there are actually 13 x (4 weeks) in a year that what is actually going to happen is people are only going to get 12 monthly payments rather that the 26 bi-weekly/52 weekly payments in a year? So effectively there's going to be a whole 4 weeks worth of benefits gone for every family/individual (not even taking into account any actual pay-out changes that will happen with UC) ?

Hang on a minute AnabelKarma...right there please....before you go generalising women/single mothers who are on benefits please know that you're average single mother is in her 30's and has been through a divorce and already had children.

Minouminou thats a good idea ref the food banks

Read my posts in answer to stormybird please. My comments are NOT aimed at anyone else.

But nobody has actually said that people will be without money for a month whilst the monthly payments are being brought in. And there was an MP on a programme this morning saying people would get help with the online stuff. And it will save money. I think the benefits system did need to be made more straightforward rather than about lots of different benefits from different departments and the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing.

Take the kid out of the equation and I'd be just as unable to legally support myself without government handouts. The context is no available work, remember. I'd be just as angry at the government if I didn't have a child. But if I'm feckless and irresponsible for making a decision based on what I'm legally entitled to, then it logically follows that only those people with enough money in the bank to bring up a child for eighteen years without any extra financial assistance from anywhere or anyone can breed responsibly. Unless of course you think there should be a moral component to the awarding of subsistence benefits, in which case I will have to respectfully disagree.

Fantastic idea minouminou- i will see if my local food bank would be interested

So, Annabel....any constructive comments you'd like to aim at Stormy, given that her daughter is a done deal now?

I'll summarise trustissues, stormybird looked at her benefit entitlement and decided to get pregnant on full benefits and is now grizzling worried that the evil tories are going to reduce her free money.
Only on MN!

in that case, then, Wannabe, maybe it should be nationwide - is there a central food bank go-to office/person?
I haven't had much to do with them beyond donating cans and whatnot, but it's been on my mind.

None whatsoever miniouminou , I'm just enjoying watching her scoring an own goal for the tories

Some MP said help would be given with the PC stuff....
That would be me then.
And I've already explained what actually happens when people need IT skills.....
But hey, some MP said it would be fine........

For the person who wanted to know about the certain circumstances for continued weekly/fortnightly payments i think it is for mentally ill and other such vulnerable people etc who would not be able to understand the change and work with it rather than LP etc and they would have to have a social worker etc apply for it for them