....to think people are over exaggerating how bad Universal Credit really is?

[GingaNinja84]

Hear me out!

I've recently come off maternity leave and have just signed up to UC to supplement my wages for the next few months, while I ease my way up to full time hours. I'm not entitled to a lot, but what I do get will be enough to live on and pay my bills until March when I go full time again.

All very easy. Apply online, meeting at job centre, first payment next week. Smashing.

Can the people who've experienced the horror stories please share? I'm intrigued as to how and why it's badly affected some people, and how much worse off people are on UC now, than they were on old style benefits. All I've ever heard from everyone I know is that UC is terrible and I shouldn't go on it (just go back full time straight away instead....)....without backing it up with any real stories or details.

I'm hoping this doesn't turn into a benefits bashing thread. I'm just really interested in how other people use the new system, and it's benefits and drawbacks

I think it's fine. As a family we value time more than money, so we've minimised our working hours and still have enough to get by and enjoy our hobbies. DH works a 20 hour week and I am a SAHM, but the UC we get is like an extra full time wage coming into the home. It means I have loads of leisure time when all the kids are in school, and we are both there for them outside school hours without the stress of two jobs tearing the family apart.

We looked at our finances before we tried for baby #2. UC wasn't even proposed in our area at that time, so we calculated on child tax credits. The UC rollout announcement came out after I was already pregnant with DD, our income now is lower than before we had DD with an extra person to fund. We also lost a full month of UC after they decided (despite being presented with payslips, P45 and bank statements) that OH was working at both his old job, and his new job at the same time, so stopped out payment all together. They won't backdate. We managed by brutally cutting our outgoings and using what little savings we had. It's a good job for the DC that I shop for Christmas all year round, and have stamps and points vouchers for the food shop, as it was our pre-Christmas payment we didn't get. Their Christmas could have been VERY different, which I'm aware is far from the end of the world, but is frustrating when we wouldn't have chosen to have a 2nd DC on this level of income, and this type of error and withholding of payments wouldn't have happened on the old system.

Definitely not exaggerating! Why lie?!
UC was great until it went wrong!

So we were on the paper version and they'd taken into account my wages for that period I only got weekly wages at that point and my partner got monthly, we got paid normally for that month. At the time they decided we needed to swap from paper to online, this takes about a month. All seems to be going well until we get our first payment with the online system 🤦🏼‍♀️ they decided we hadn't had the previous month wages taken into account so they add that to the months wages. We lost £500 that was basically half of our claim. No matter how many arguments over the phone and on the journal, they never admitted either them or hmrc that f'd up. It took us 3 months of asking to take it further for them to admit they were wrong and that they owed it, however that payment never did come no matter what we did. How the hell we got through that month I'll never know. I then left that job and started a new one that paid monthly and more, so then uc constantly suspended our claim without informing us so in the end the 2nd/3rd they did it without telling us I decided to go without it to see if we could cope and since then it's been the best decision ever. Only if I was extremely desperate like I'd lost my job or something would I go back to it. It's not worth the hassle. I have a 3yr old and from him being 1 month old they would ask me to travel into town to the JC to have appointments constantly even though I didn't need to be in work but I was on maternity and had a low paying low hours part time job to go back to after maternity. I now have an 8 week old too and whilst money is tight without UC it's so much more stress free.

When I was in the CAB I was the only person who wasn’t there for UC problems. It might be ok if you have a bit of a safety net when you change over but lots of pekple don’t and run into all sorts of problems because of it

No people are not exaggerating.

They simply have a different set of circumstances than you.

Did you really want to hear all the terrible situations people have been put through?

YABVU to start a thread with the title you have when you haven’t even had a 1st payment yet!

So you don’t even know yet if it will work for you!

“I'm hoping this doesn't turn into a benefits bashing thread” aye right! Why use that thread title then?

If you want real life experiences there are numerous mn threads, several Facebook groups, twitter pages and other sources of info. Not to mention plain googling.

I’m still on legacy benefits for the moment, I’ve been advised to remain on them for as long as possible.

I have recently been moved from DLA to pip which was a palaver but so far working ok.

I’ve friends and family on UC and none of them are better off on it.

A few aren’t worse off than they were but the majority are worse off to varying degrees and have had several major headaches with it.

It’s an inherently sexist and punitive system.

The changes to the welfare system including UC have directly and indirectly lead to many deaths. How many we don’t know for sure because every time the govt has been asked they’ve stonewalled.

“I think the point of the OP's post is that she is in fact on UC. Why is her 'lived experience' so much less valid than your relative's” because she doesn’t yet HAVE the lived experience of this! She’s never been on benefits before she’s not even had ONE payment yet!

I’ve been on benefits of some kind now for 17 years

initially as an unemployed single mum in immediate aftermath of split from dds dad my exh - income support, housing & council tax benefit, child tax credit

then as a full time working single mum - working, child & childcare tax credit, small amount of housing benefit & council tax benefit

Then as a student single mum - child & childcare tax credit, housing benefit & council tax benefit, income support in summer holidays

Then again working full time

Then as a sick/disabled unemployed single mum - housing benefit & council tax benefit, child tax credit, esa, DLA

Then as sick/disabled living alone - housing benefit & council tax benefit, esa, pip. I’m now subject to the bedroom tax since dd moved out and not only am I not well enough to deal with moving house. There are very few 1 bed properties available anyway. Luckily as I’m in Scotland this govt covers that issue via local council discretionary housing payments but I have to reapply every 3 months.

In addition some benefits are devolved issues and from 1 April will be moved to Scots govt administration.

At no point has it been “easy” it’s meant working to a tight budget all that time, occasionally incurring debt or struggling to pay bills or even going without basics so dds were covered, being absolutely on the ball with when payments are due in and how much they should be and contacting dwp as soon as you notice an issue, spending hours on the phone or in appointments because THEY messed up not me!

Whenever there’s been a problem it’s been due to a mistake their end not mine. I’ve always been scrupulously honest with every piece of info I’ve given them, I’ve willingly accepted them into my home because they don’t believe that I’m single, allowing them to investigate me, allowed them to know the deeply personal and very embarrassing details of my health issues even though that’s at times meant such things being discussed quite publicly. Any mistake that’s worked in my favour was clawed back pretty much immediately and usually in full. Any mistake that’s worked in their favour has taken MONTHS to sort out - funny that!

“My experience has been good” you have pretty much zero experience to speak of as yet!

“how is my childminder not having availability being a lifestyle choice?! I'd bloody love to go back full time!” Well for starters did you not check childcare availability before ttc? Consider waiting until you COULD afford nursery fees?

What does “can’t afford them” really mean anyway? Do you mean it would leave you seriously worse off? Or like many parents is it simply a case that for a short time it means you’d be “breaking even” with the costs of childcare being roughly equal to what you’d be earning?

Having children and when IS a choice.

And I’d love to know where you live where ALL the nurseries and cm are full! I’ve never come across that.

@Sotiredofthislife you won’t lose any money if you move to UC via managed migration because you will get transitional protection.

@PeapodBurgundy why did having another dc move you onto UC? It should not have UC would have been only for significant change of circumstances.

MyDcAreMarvel managed migration has not been rolled out to the whole of the UK yet it’s not to be fully implemented until July 2020 which is why so many people don’t want to go over to UC as they loose so many premiums which is making them worse off. It’s totally different from when people migrated over from past benefits to legacy benefits when the transitional allowance was automatically put into place.

My friend had a nightmare claiming UC for her son. It took 5 weeks, fair enough. But then he was only on the basic rate for 3 months (( he's profoundly disabled. His nappy top ups alone cost £30 pw)) whilst they decided whether this 18 year old with the mental capacity of a nine month old baby was disabled enough to receive the disability elements.

Luckily his dad has.an ok job so he didn't go without. But what about those that don't ?? To top it all the money lost in the stretched out 'assessment phase ' isn't repaid.

I’m not on UC but I know all about it. Just because some people are better off doesn’t negate the awfulness of it. . I don’t see why you wouldn’t understand how cruel and vile it is to so many. You are very fortunate that UC works for you, but it astounds me that you wouldn’t be aware of all the many horror stories about it and be puzzled as to how it isn’t good for everyone.

I nearly lost my home because of their complete incompetence.

I was receiving Mortgage Interest Support under the old system. I moved to UC and was meant to get it straightaway paid to my mortgage company.

4 months, 23 phone calls and a total of 6 hours on the phone....only a formal complaint did the trick.

They ruined my credit as my mortgage went into default. Bear in mind this is a loan secured against my home so not a benefit. They breached their own terms and conditions.

The system isnt fit for purpose.

I know people on UC who've never been able to catch up because of the 5 week wait.
You're immediately pushed back 5 steps, it's impossible to get back on your feet.

You're incredibly lucky that you've the privilege and luxury to be able to go back to work part time and supplement your wages with UC. You have the ability to increase you're earning potential.
There are plenty of people who don't have that luxury and it's those who face the wrath of UC.

Add in;

• Needing an internet connection and daily access
• A decent grasp of literacy
• Being told to apply for work for 35 hours per week (most people applying for jobs they're under qualified or inexperienced to carry out, because there isn't work.)
• Having to pay back the advance at huge amounts.
• Having to find the money to pay for childcare and then claiming it back.
• Fluctuating wages, 5 week months and multiple paydays causing problems with receiving the amount

Plus so many other things, the system is a shit show.

People are dying before getting their first payment, food banks (and baby banks, uniform banks...) are more prevalent than ever, people are missing meals to feed their kids and/or choosing between heating or eating.

For you to say you don't understand what the issue is is so short-sighted and very 'pull the ladder up jack.'
There's no excuse for ignorance.

The idea that anyone can live on 250 A MONTH is laughable. To much of the UK that's an average weekly wage - and not a high one either. If love to see middle class conservative voters actually live on that, without getting into debt.

On a side note, the reading age is shocking. I work with service users, people who've worked in manual jobs, or who are unemployed - and the level of handwriting skills and spelling ability is simply abysmal. Its primary school level. It's a national disgrace that is allowed to happen. Part of it is due to early exclusion which naturally disrupts education, and truancy, and relaxed policies on parents who allow their kids to bunk off, and various other reasons... But whatever the reason its awful this is allowed to happen to children under 11.
And I don't believe all those people have learning disabilities or dyslexia. Just no. The problem is lack of education for so called troubled kids

And of course it perpetuates a culture. Low literacy - good luck getting a good job, welcome to poverty. Bunking off with friends - good luck getting qualifications. Hanging about with friends rather than being in school, links to getting into trouble and offending. Add in few job prospects, no qualifications, a family to support, and living in poverty with negative peer influences - and you have a perfect recipe for offending and further social troubles

I find it ironic that the OP starts off saying she doesn't want this to turn into a benefits bashing thread, then in her very next post mentions someone who has been on benefits their entire life because they don't want to work... a touch hypocritical, really.

usurper42456767

I'm glad the time the rest of us spend away from our children is making your life so great ffs. I thought UC was supposed to be stopping this kind of thing. How can a couple get away with working 20hrs between them, when as a single parent working 37.5 I'm being told I have to find more work

From what I’ve seen it appears that a lot of it around people’s ability to manage money particularly paying rent. However what ever the problem is it has resulted in an increased poverty so there must be something.

I think a lot depends on your housing situation.

My DD, with two children (left an abusive relationship) is £80 a week worse off under UC. Her rent is £450 a month. Her local housing allowance is ridiculously low. It's based on social housing rates (even though SH is none existent in her area). If she didn't have family helping her out, myself included, she would be facing homelessness. Her ex uses every trick in the book to get out of paying maintenance and the CM Agency seem to help him do that at times.

She works around 20 hours a week. If she worked more, she would have her housing costs cut and would be homeless. She could have worked more hours under the old system.

UC was supposed 'to make work pay', but it isn't working better than the old system. As said, it's cost as much as it's saved to implement and run. It is just a punishment on the poor.

I know disabled people who are now around £40 a week less off. When they have hospital appointments they now use the ambulance service, instead of taxis. So as many reports point out, the cost is being picked up by other departments, which cost more. It also means local taxi firms etc lose business. We need money circulating in our society.
Our high streets are dying as it is. My local hairdresser has had to cut staff and cafés etc are closing by the minute. There's trouble brewing between taxi firms because drivers are coming in from outside of our city. These are all originally from Pakistan/Bangladesh and it's going to blow up, because the work isn't there.

To answer the usual cries of 'benefits aren't supposed to be a lifestyle choice', that fair enough, if employment exists. Not only employment, but employment that allows you to live in your own home.

Wait, what? You can claim uc just because you work part time? I did not know this but it does not seem very moral. I work part time but it's my choice. Surely you shouldn't get top up money?

Op, it works.well for you because it is designed to. Monthly pay, IT literate,.not disabled. Not everyone fits those categories and if you don't, UC.doesnt work anywhere as well and creates more hardship that necessary.

I dont mind it at the moment.

The problems for me were initially, for some reason my payment would never go through. I'd have to ring up on the day (we were working too btw) and when the phone lines weren't free it got majorly expensive. I ran up a grand and a half in phone Bill's just on UC and got two phones cut off and obviously got in debt with that.

If the phone lines had been free from the start I wouldnt have cared about ringing up to sort it out because once I got through to someone it was usually a 20 minute job to sort out and it was sorted the same day every time, several staff members went above and beyond to help me with it more than once.

It worked fine for me. However the 5 week wait and paying childcare fees UPFRONT is unacceptable.

I was lucky as I had savings to tide us over until the first payment came in. I am now a full time worker with my partner, I am happy not to have to rely on government money. The worry and stress or government cuts was what pushed me back into education.

dumped I'm paid on the 15th and assumed that as it was the middle of the month I wouldn't have a problem with UC. Shit .
Fingers crossed I won't be moved over for some time.