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.

27 years working there sock, never has it been so bad. Even the Thatcher years were better
So many people out of work, so much poverty, so many ordinary, good people distressed as to what their lives have become, through no fault of their own....
I do my very best, every single day but its nowhere near enough

In fairness, Wannabe, I did ask for it.

Katie what is your opinon on workfare.

Its lovely to see a jobcentre advisor who cares so much btw.

Just out of curiosity - let's say stormybird got a NMW job working 40 hours a week before she was pregnant....would you be so judgemental then...when she has to give up said job because there isn't the childcare places, or childcare is so expensive it makes working non-sensical? Or, shock horror, the NMW expects her to work antisocial hours and she can't get childcare that she can arrofd at the weekends and at night? I've lived this...I know how hard it is...I already had a child....so what difference does it make anyway? Would she be scrounging then? It's not the "scroungers" that are the problem - it's the system....a system that works on lining the pockets of CEO's and shareholders....a system that allows criminals (HSBC bank anyone?) to profit from their abhorrent practises, get away with paying as little taxes as possible and give almost nothing back..and then the cheeky bastards have the temerity to point their sausage fingers at the little man and roar "feckless srcoungers!!!!!!" Less than .4% of the benefits budget (and 50% of that budget is pensions) goes to people who really are taking the piss.....

I know katie i try to move my cv about for each job but get pulled up with age being a female if i remove my degree from my cv I lose 4 years history when I did jsa my lady didnt even ask in the end ref jobs i applied for as she knew i already
applied for them. When at the end they show any new jobs i would show a email to prove that i have already done it.

The angenys dont want you as they have so many people already. Last year at mine there was 10 this time last yr for this contract as most leave as 8 hour night shift is not enough this yr they have 30 still asking for work. i asked if they had another contract they could move me to like they did in 2012 answer NO sigh

Katie - the world needs more people like you - my jobcentre lone parent advisor was amazing and wonderful...but I've heard some terrible, terrible stories of awful awful job centre employees too.

My opinion?
If it replaces jobs then its slave labour.
If its to get Jenny 18 year old some work experience and a reference so she can get through Asda screening process, marginally better.
If its part of a sector based work academy where there are guaranteed job interviews at the end, better still.

In our place, Work Experience placements are sourced by our EAs and are held in local businesses ( usually small) because the business owner wants to give a youngster a chance.
If I said what I thought about multi- national corporations using WE as a labour saving economy drive on an open forum, I'd get sacked because we are not allowed to comment. Ditto the Work Programme, benefit sanctions, universal credit, etc.

Would love to of had katie as my supervisor

Bet we can guess though, cant we Katie

The trouble is the amount of benefit is like how long is a piece of string. Some people can hardly afford to eat and some others seem to be doing very well. That's the problem and that's why people get misconceptions about what life on benefit is like. It would be easier if people knew exactly how much people had to live on but they don't.

I can give you a break down if you like, Viviennemary...what it was like for me....

Thanks Katie.

This is a copy and paste of mine from an old thread.

I did this for a living between 2001 and 2003. I was on New Deal at the time. They had ALREADY made me work 3 months for my JSA. One month in a charity shop. Two months at local council.
There was no job at the end so i was referred back to the Job Centre,signed on normally for one month and then those bastard providers at Reed/Pelcombe wanted me to work for ANOTHER 3 months at Campbells soup factory for my JSA.
Theres your back story.
I saw a job in a sex chatline office advertised in local classifieds. It paid £12.000 a year and it was night work but it was a choice between that or workfare. Ive done workfare and ive done chatline work and guess what. Out of those two choices which were the ONLY two choices i had at that time,it wasnt the chatline that i found degrading.

People who do best on benefits;
Young people living at home with parents, paying no rent, Council Tax, food bills, etc.
That's it.

If people want to know how much someone could get (based on current benefits) they can just type it into a benefit calculator. Ex SIL asked me to check for her once. I was getting £968 a month and if I remember correctly, for having three children instead of one, she would have received £1600 a month. I was quite surprised at the difference to be honest as that means an extra £300 each month for each extra child. It did make me realise how those with bigger families may have extra money for treats if the budget well whereas no matter how hard I budget, there will be no treats.

Where do i stand , as my user name suggests i have 6children all planned, all with my then husband, could afford them were doing ok, what i didn't expect was my husband to shag 3 other people one of which being my cousin.

After throwing him out i signed on for 3months (took them that long to pay me) then signed off as was making me ill not working as even when married always worked in the family business.

I have since started my own business but think once uc come in i will have to close up, as reading the info some months i will not be entitled to anything as they don't take into account yearly figures but monthly and some months i don't make anything as have had a large outlay for stock ect.

I can't get another job as there isn't any hence the reason i started my own business, so instead of making it easier for businesses they are making it harder so both myself and my employee will probably be out of work

Another post from the same thread.

I have been forced into workfare in the past as i explained upthread and it was either MORE workfare or the chatline job as it was the only PAID job being offered to me at that time.
i enjoyed working in that office and worked with a great bunch of girls who im still friends with ten years later.
Solid is right about the older callers. My oldest caller was 76,lived alone and was still interested in sex and wanted to talk about it and fulfil some fantasies.
I felt demeaned and demoralized by workfare as i wasnt being paid a wage for it so made to feel i wasnt worth anything.
I was paid for the chatline work so my confidence went up as my boss thought i was worth actually paying a wage to,unlike the exploitative companies who use workfare.

New Deal ( shudder)
New Labour flagship programme. Excellent in theory, hideous in practice.
Did I mention I hate all political parties equally? Call me Dave and co are no worse than Blair was for treating the poor like they were scum.
I mean it when I say things were better under Thatcher, as there were no sanctions, etc. then. People were treated with respect and couldn't be forced into disgusting opportunities that do no damn good in increasing their employability.
Disclaimer, I am not and never have been a Tory

When I was a lp i didnt have sky the flatscreen telly or beer in the fridge. I came out of 10 yr marriage but left so quick that had little furntuire etc my dad gave he hes work old fridge and everything was second hand i didnt get a bed till my divorce money came through and that went on white goods etc and rent.

I still have the 2nd hand tv from a neighbour now which was given to me 9yrs ago. This flat has carpet tablefrom freecycle if anything big goes bang we have no funds to replace.

looks at fridge thats 8 yrs old and makes a rackert

Katie, can you please confirm for me as no matter how many times I say it on these threads nobody believes me.

The online you qualify for calc, do not take into acc one benefits effect on another.they also do not do the deductions that the dwp/hmrc /HB do so they will give you an estimate on what you COULD be entitled to but not what you will eventually get in your hand, the figures could be vastly different and that won't be in your favour.

I'm not sure I agree with the people who do best are young ones living at home with parents as all they usually get is jobseeker's allowance. So they would be far better off in a job even at minimum wage. And I think a lot of people with children get help from grandparents. Not saying this is a bad thing but I've known people in the past on benefits that got lots of help from parents. But it does distort the picture a bit. I think it must be very hard in this bad weather with the cost of fuel and so on.

I know I'm not Katie but every time I've calculated mine, they have been spot on. We used to do it weekly when exp lived with us still (zero hour contract) and it was always accurate.

Sock, it's true. If you want a proper calculation, you need a PA who knows how to input and interpret a better off calculation. If you don't understand where the figures are coming from, how do you know if they are correct?
Always check with a trained advisor.

Would someone just let me know what a zero hour contract is?

Yes they may be better off in a job. But why should they when they get cash every fortnight wholly for themselves?
And it would have to be full time work, not an apprenticeship ( which are paid below NMW especially in the first few years). And they would have to find and get the full time job in the first place. NMW for an 18 year old is very, very little.
My point was, as far as disposable income goes, living free with your parents is as good as it gets benefits- wise IYSWIM ?