....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 have mixed feelings about it.

I fucked up my childcare payment by not uploading the invoices in time but I rang them and they sorted it ASAP. I’m really grateful to the person on the phone for that.

I do feel like I’m always playing “catch up” as it’s paid a month in arrears and sometimes my childcare costs are more and I’m short some months. I’m trying to save to cover the shortfall but I don’t earn much hence why I’m on UC!

It’s been OK so far but I’m not a vulnerable person. The previous benefit systems seemed to (I’ve only ever been on UC) give more handholding so vulnerable members of society didn’t have to do as much for themselves. Now the rig has been pulled from them without support which is a recipe for disaster.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but it can cause problems for people renting. In the past, a lot of landlords distinguished between people getting housing benefit and those getting a small amount of child tax credits etc. Now it's all under the heading of universal credit, so if their insurance or mortgage stops them renting to people on benefits, they will refuse people even on a small amount of universal credit.

Hearing about sanctions and the unreliability of payments might also put landlords off.

It’s a dreadful system that fails thousands. A family member of mine is on it and she is really struggling.

Sanctions are the worst and it’s a national disgrace what they do to you if you miss an appointment.

I am a single parent and am self employed doing a creative job that I love and am skilled at. Some months I earn a lot, some months I earn nothing / it depends on when the payments that I invoice for turn up.

The minimum income floor for UC screws over self employed people like me. If you earn around £800 in a month, you get the full amount of UC you’re entitled to. Obviously if you earn over £800 the amount of UC you get drops (fair enough). If you earn anything under £800 (even £0), you don’t get any more UC than you would if you’d earned the £800. If you are employed by a company or unemployed you would get extra if you earned under £800 in a month.

So as I’m self employed, I have a lot of months where I’m down a lot of money as my invoices haven’t been paid and I don’t get the top up amount, then the next month I get paid well over the £800 but obviously then my UC drops substantially - basically I am always down by a lot more money than I would be if I, for example, worked in a supermarket.

I’ve had to take on a part time job as well to ensure that I can afford to live. I don’t want to give up my self employed work because I worked my arse off to get where I am and to some extent it is my identity. So I work constantly - 24 hours per week for a minimum wage job and all hours God sends doing my self employed stuff. I am absolutely exhausted and still don’t earn enough to escape benefits.

Any more judgey comments regarding why I'm on UC

@GingaNinja84 Re read my posts, nowhere have I judged you for being on UC I am not that shallow.

Upthread I answered your original question, I'm just really interested in how other people use the new system, and it's benefits and drawbacks the drawback is that you would have been better off on Tax Credits so UC is not a positive outcome.

You, however, sound less sincere making a few judgey comments of your own

All very easy. Apply online, meeting at job centre, first payment next week. Smashing
She's perfectly capable of working, just always chose not to under the old system.
All I've ever heard from everyone I know is that UC is terrible and I shouldn't go on it ....without backing it up with any real stories or details.

A quick search on the internet or any media source, even mumsnet, backs up the real stories, as a few people on here pointed out, but you follow up with;

Well this all sounds really promising I wonder why the negativity?
I suppose I must live in a little lucky bubble sometimes.

How patronising are you?

Imagine if someone came on here and said ...to think people are over exaggerating how bad Child Birth really is?

All very easy after a 3 hour drug free labour baby slid out and popped on my breast, slept all night. Smashing.

We would all know that even if this was one persons experience, no one else is exaggerating when they said child birth was really bad.

Engage your brain OP.

Yabu
Just because it’s ok for you OP, that doesn’t mean that everyone else who’s had a problem is lying or should be ignored ffs.

Universal credit IMO is incredibly patronising and demeaning.

The government spends way too much time and effort clawing back money from those at the bottom yet hands out billions of aid to banks with no recompense.

It’s disgusting.

Tbh I wish they would stop putting benefits programs on the tv for amusement where they cherry pick individuals who are obviously taking the piss. There was one on last night and the voice over kept describing their wedding as an benefits wedding’

The government spends way too much time and effort clawing back money from those at the bottom yet hands out billions of aid to banks with no recompense

This!

I’m currently claiming UC. My DH left in December. We have 16 month old twins and I wasn’t working.

I only received half of my housing costs the first months payment because it took a few weeks for my housing association to change our tenancy to a single one. If the tenancy is still joint then you can only receive half of your housing costs even for a single claim! So in that respect the system penalises women in my situation.

I need to go back to work. I need childcare for my twins. UC only pays the 85% of your childcare costs in arrears and I can’t afford to pay a months child care costs in advance.

I don’t get my next payment until the 22nd. I’m already worried about how I’m going to buy food for my children and put gas/electric on the metre until then. Some nights I just eat my children’s leftovers to save money.

OP
I'm genuinely intrigued on how you got UC by choosing to willing reduce your hours.

I was told I wasn't entitled to anything if I reduced my hours as I did it off my own back. Even if I quit work I wouldn't be able to claim anything as we have a mortgage and my husband works full time (band 2 nhs btw)

I'd love to do three days a week and be topped up with UC (as probably most mums) for a couple of years. How did you do this or does it vary from county to county?

We are very slightly worse off on UC.

We had several appointments to attend, some of which were because we weren't told about certain things we had to bring when booking said appointments. So we had to go back again.

We had the fun 5 week wait and then still didn't receive payment at the end of it, admittedly they did release some money very quickly when I chased this up, and that did just get us by until we received the rest.

They realised we had some money owing to them from childcare on the tax credit system and started taking repayments back at a rate we couldn't really afford, without warning, starting at Christmas. I mean obviously we owed that money but it would have been nice to know the plan beforehand.

The worst thing for us has been the childcare. We ended up having to pay so much up front due to the 5+ week wait that I nearly gave up work instead. When there was a problem with one of my dcs childcare providers they stopped payments for both until I wrote a begging message. Waiting for childcare providers to provide the information they need re: ofsted registration, child cared for, hours attended etc has also caused delays to payments. Despite me chasing it up constantly. - why the claimant simply providing the ofsted reg and bills isn't enough I don't know. Would cut out delays involving other people.
The fact that you have to pay and then reclaim childcare costs is the biggest problem. In the beginning especially we just didn't have the money.

So yes op. I’m afraid you are living in a ‘little bubble’ with your slow return to work

Lou there is one on BBC 2 at 9PM tonight about UC. It will be interesting to see if BBC 2 portrays people on benefits the same way channel 5 does or if they focus on those it affects the most such as the vulnerable, sick those with disabled children etc.

Its not bad, all benefits suck tbh

My family member was moved to Universal Credit in October. They have still not decided he is disabled and are paying him the basic rate. They have assigned him a work commitment. They know he is really disabled. They have met him and he heard them calling him a fat spaz as they left (on the video doorbell).

The basic rate does not cover the rent on the specialist adapted home the council built for him. He is now in arrears with the rent and with council tax, for the first time in his life, and is being prosecuted next week by the council.

He is paralysed from the neck down and has 24 hour 2:1 NHS care at home. He is now broke and soon to be criminalised. For what?

The whole benefits system is now incredibly harsh on lone parents/single people/couples without kids and vulnerable not to mention the workers.
The government has set amounts that it decided that people need to live on, most of those amounts have been the same for years and it really is a pittance.
So if it has a set amount for each person plus each child if there are any in the household that is the minimum that is needed to live on how is the benefit cap even legal. Some claimants dont receive their full housing element/full housing benefit anymore so are using other means tested benefits to top the housing cost ups meaning they are then well below what the government legally says they NEED to live on. Add the advance given to cover the 5 week wait paid back at i think its 30% of their benefit allowance monthly and if they have changed over there will be the obligatory tax credit overpayment that they pull out of thin air. So by the time those are deducted and housing costs cover they are well below what the government says they need to live on. Hence the need for food banks and people now are needing to use them more than the '3 times in 6 months' or what is the current restrictions.
People are suffering and others are more bothered that the claimants have a big telly so therefore are not poor. Tv's can be bought on hirepurchase and those schemes pray on the poor who pay triple the actual cost of the tv or even more on 'low weekly payments' that often go on for years.
On paper UC sounds great all benefits in one meaning they all know what the left hand is doing for once - but the whole system needs a complete overhaul to work for individuals.

@GingaNinja84 your friend will still get tax credits children now have to stay in education until there 18, I feel sorry for your mate having a so called friend like you bashing her on sites you sounds like a great friend (not)

His mother on the other hand, has had to have reassessments to switch over to the new system, she's chronically ill and will never go back to work

Less money for disability

• People are too disabled to get to appointments...

Surely those are issues with PIP, not UC.

It’s all well n good being almost completely online until you get to people who can’t use tech, be it disability, age, financial or just lack of skills
All skills one would need to get a job - which the vast majority of claimants have. There is help available for those who need it. Why do we infantilise benefits claimants as incapable of something as basic as filling in a form on a website?

Names if it is a council property then UC have to pay the rent that the council state it is. UC contact the council via an electronic portal and confirm the person is a tenant and what the weekly rent charge is. They can't refuse to pay less than what the council are charging.

Also your relative should have completed a UC50 and had a medical all within 2 assessment periods and the decision made. If this has not happened he needs to make a formal complaint.
Has he had any support from welfare rights or cab?

He wont receive criminal charges by the way if it goes to court. If he has been unable to pay rent due to UC issues then the judge will decide no further action until benefits are corrected. The judge can decide to reclaim costs and arrears at a weekly rate of £3.50 per week and the council must accept it.
Its shit it really is but your relative needs proper benefits advisor support.

It's not a council property. The council had no properties they could adapt (because of ceiling height) so they chose to adapt a private flat in partnership with a local landlord.

He HAS completed UC50 and he HAS made a formal complaint. He HAS a benefits advisor. This actually IS the system.

The court is the council tax not the rent arrears. The landlord are doing their best to manage until it's sorted because unlike the government they don't want to murder an innocent man.

The court is the council tax not the rent arrears. The landlord are doing their best to manage until it's sorted because unlike the government they don't want to murder an innocent man for the crime of a broken neck.

grr double posted and I even refreshed to check it hadn't gone through!

Minty

Surely those are issues with PIP, not UC.

UC have 2 sick/disabled elements LCW and LCWR whoch require the claimant to attend appointments which some are unable because of their sickness/disability.

All skills one would need to get a job - which the vast majority of claimants have. There is help available for those who need it. Why do we infantilise benefits claimants as incapable of something as basic as filling in a form on a website?

Believe it or not some people are not IT literate at all for many reasons plus they have no access to the internet as they cannot afford it. It's not treating claimants like children it's about understanding that there are barriers to people claiming benefits.

The help is not everywhere and it's not always good. My council has spent millions building hubs and employing staff to support people to use the computers to claim UC but the demand outweighs the staffing capacity.