Universal Credit won't be paid in months with 5 weeks. (WTF?) AIBU to think no one realises

[raisinsarenottheonlyfruit]

If you get paid weekly, and there are 5 weeks in a month, in those months your pay will likely go over the Universal Credit limit and your UC will be stopped. You will have to go without that month and apply again.

WTF are they thinking?

Have they never heard of averages FFS? (That's how Tax Credits works). This is going to screw over so many people. It's ludricous.

The people claiming UC aren't any richer that month, they get the same amount of money as if it was paid in 12 monthly chunks.

This will happen to thousands of people every time there's a month with 5 weeks. (I guess they mean 5 Mondays?)

This is farcical.

There's 5 weeks in January, so if you get paid weekly that's you fucked for February.

April, July, October and December also have 5 Mondays.

This is utterly farcical and just plain callous.

Does anyone remember me pointing out upthread how this could affect teachers assistants and a certain poster shouted me down......

lo and behold.

thepoorsideoflife.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/todays-demo-leave-your-job-as-a-part-time-teaching-assistant-and-become-a-cleaner-instead/

From the link.

"I spoke to a lady who is on Universal Credit and is working part time at a school as a teaching assistant. Because she is claiming Universal Credit she still has to sign on. It’s awful because the DWP see a person working like this as underemployed and of no value at all.

She told me that her advisor had been particularly cruel today. As soon as she sat down to talk to her advisor, the advisor started to speak in an aggressive tone giving her orders. One being that she should leave her job as a valued teaching assistant and get a job as a cleaner instead. The lady told me that she couldnt believe what her so called advisor was telling her to do. She was also told to complete various other unreasonable tasks."

Helena, those articles are bloody awful it is totally dystopian :( I don;t know how the Conservatives can have any credibility remaining, they are ruining the country across the board. (Well, except perhaps if you are v. rich, lacking empathy, and have no care for environmental degradation in the pursuit of profit).

Putting this here again,. Not many signing the petition but I think it is worth pursuing by any means so do sign and share widely if you haven't already petition.parliament.uk/petitions/203492

Whilst teaching assistants do a amazing job, rules are rules and if you want to claim state money you have to comply.

The lady could find a second job around her first (very easy given part time TA hours) or find a full time role.

We would all like to work the perfect job with perfect hours but not at the cost to others. If her job doesn't support her and is too few hours to be classed by the state as doing enough then changes have to be made.

YellowMakesMeSmile so who exactly is supposed to do the TA jobs then?

Only those who can find (non existent) jobs that work round TA jobs?

No, plenty of people work term time or part time with no state help. Those single living at home or with friends, second adults in the household so there's another income etc. I highly doubt every TA lives on benefits

Yellow, people don't tend to choose to be single parents. Are single parents not able to work as TAs by your logic or should they all get cleaning instead?

@Yellow, they don't want common sense solutions, just stories from left wing sites that support their argument.

www.gingerbread.org.uk/what-we-do/news/universal-credit-job-seeking-requirements-risk-pushing-single-parents-young-children-poverty/

It genuinely terrifies me as a single mum of 2 under 3 just how the hell i will ever manage to meet the requirements. Makes me feel sick :(

No, plenty of people work term time or part time with no state help.

What complete and utter nonsense.

Child benefit = state help.
Child tax credit = state help.
WORKING tax credit = state help.
Housing benefit, huge proportion of claims by those IN WORK = state help.

they don't want common sense solutions, just stories from left wing sites that support their argument.

Fact are facts Kath. Not stories. HTH.

Ladycsparkles there is a postcode checker somewhere (I'll try and find it) which will tell you when UC id likely to be rolled out in your area.

Ladycsparkles type your postcode into here and jt will tell you when it's likely yo be rolled out and what/who is likely yo be affected/unaffected.

ucpostcode.entitledto.co.uk/ucdate

Hope you are prepared to pay more for your produce Kath.

www.tivysideadvertiser.co.uk/news/15641387.Universal_credit___39_poses_big_threat_to_rural_economy__39_/

Yellow - honest to fuck what planet you on?

1 who then does the TA jobs

2 why should someone who is suited to doing a TA job do a cleaning job?

3 NO there aren't many jobs that would fit around school hours! There's very few jobs of ANY kind'

4 maybe the TA is doing a part time job BECAUSE as many who work part time do - she has other commitments - children, elderly parents (Christ knows the social care budgets been cut right back!) or she's not in the best of health herself but under the heartless shells of Tory attitudes she's not classed as 'sick enough' to not be made to work full time.

5 LOADS of jobs are part time because they don't NEED to be done full time - so if the tories insist everyone work full time - who the fuck is gonna do them?!

6 actually although 'part time' having worked in childcare myself it's very draining and working in a job like that under the current financial restraints and ridiculous bureaucracy must be bloody exhausting!

"Rules are rules" is worryingly close to "only following orders"

"No, plenty of people work term time or part time with no state help. Those single living at home or with friends, second adults in the household so there's another income etc. I highly doubt every TA lives on benefits" yep you're in fucking dreamland!

If the only people 'allowed' to do such jobs were those with partners in executive level jobs or still living at home with parents there wouldn't be enough people to do the needed labour! There's at least one TA in every primary school class in the country! Sometimes 2 or more PLUS in some secondary classes too.

Kath - explain to me in detail where the FUCK the common sense is in making people more poor than they already are?! Where we have people in FULL TIME WORK needing to use food banks?! Where it makes ANY SENSE to force people FROM secure jobs TO insecure ones, to force people from jobs they are good at and provide good value to ones they have no experience or knowledge in - IT IS INSANE!!!!

Graphista - spot on.

Kath and Yellow don't want common sense solutions, just opportunities to spout their bigoted, narrow minded hatred. As if it would be common sense to push someone with a good job that fits around childcare into a lower paid job that would not fit with childcare.

Brilliant post graphista 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

Although honestly I think kath and yellow are not even real as their opinions are so goady and troll like 🙄

This will prob get deleted but I don’t give a shit

Thanks

I am aware certain posters are probably just being goady but I still think it's worth keepin on posting on this farce so that others that may be reading that genuinely don't understand WILL. And are not misled by such posters too!

Yeah definitely

I personally will fight to my last breath against this sheer bullshit that is universal credit. and also against certain attitudes

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/universal-credit-leaving-children-scarred-by-poverty-warns-think-tank_uk_59ff3f34e4b0baea26324bcf

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/06/christmas-cancelled-by-universal-credit-as-benefit-cuts-hit-the-most-vulnerable?CMP=share_btn_fb

From the above link

"• I had a most upsetting encounter exchanging our Guardian token for the newspaper at our local Co-op last Friday. The lady in front of me noticed the lady on the checkout had been weeping and we asked if things were all right.

The response was a gush of tearful anguish. She had just heard she was now subject to universal credit and would not be paid for six weeks. She said: “I try so hard, I work part time and have a little girl; it’s always a struggle to manage … I’ve just discovered I won’t be able to get anything in time for Christmas.”

She said she’d rung Gateshead council, who suggested she should visit the food bank down in Blaydon.

I was shocked. I hadn’t realised the UC “rollout” could so spitefully target the Geordie tradition of “Christmas is for the bairns”.

Up to that point I’d merely rated the Nicholas Timmins article (Opinion, 1 November) about the passing of the welfare state as “an interesting analysis”. Now it affects our local community, I am angry.
David Higdon
Ryton, Tyne and Wear"

So like a couple of us have been saying upthread how much longer is she going to be able to afford to go into work. Or have the strength to

“Well that’s entirely her fault Helena she should work harder and get a better job with more hours. And why have a child if you can’t support it”

^^the simplistic attitude of some on this thread 🙄🙄🙄

Seriously though that’s heartbreaking 😔😔😔 bless the chap for writing in x

Thank you for the postcode checker :)

A friend had an experience the other day which made me feel so sad- an elderly lady walked into her house, she came into the lounge and found her sat on the sofa with her head in her hands crying.

Long story short this lady was in her 60s and has Alzheimers. It turned out she lives a few streets away and had wandered off and ended up at my friends house- her very worried husband started calling her mobile within a couple of minutes of her arriving at the house and my friend said it was heartbreaking when he arrived. She clearly knew her husband but didn't recognise him for who he was. The poor man apparently looked harassed to within an inch of his life and broke down when my friend asked if he would like a cup of tea.

He said he can't get any assistance for his wife despite the fact that she wanders off at least 3 times a day, not only that but she is not entitled to esa or pip as according to the powers that be 'she is not that bad' and that he has to sign on once a fortnight to get the small amount of money they have coming in despite the fact that he can't leave his wife unsupervised. I could have wept for them