To be absolutely fking sick of Universal Credit

[scorpiogirly]

Posted a few days ago regarding being called in for an appointment after work messed my wages up.

Went through all pay slips and could see the mistake, also could then see the basic pay per month which is over the AET. This is after increasing my hours.

So I messaged the work coach and explained what happened and that going forward my pay would be over the AET and asked if I still needed to attend the meeting which is today.

I was told yes as it was under last month. And we can discuss this apparently when I go in. Discuss what? Possible reasons work made the mistake? This is a work search appointment. For which there will be nothing to discuss or put in place as I will be over the AET.

But no, let's still waste my time, their time and also taxpayers money.

I just hate it. The way they make you jump through hoops in order to get the help you're entitled to.

Just a rant really. Does anyone hate UC as much as me?

Well yeah. With the extra money I earn, they're taking 55p in the point. Which is fine. But if we earn less I'd have no problem still taking the same amount.

Correct, it’s a huge waste of resources.
However, they don’t get a choice, they’ll just be following procedures given and unfortunately don’t get to use much discretion.

If earnings reported are not correct, UC need to follow a real time information dispute- they won’t allow you to just provide the evidence.

I had this once work overpaid me then underpaid the next month. I tried to explain in the journal but had to attend appointment. It lasted two minutes. Just put me back on light touch. Would review wages in next pay period and if they were back to normal I’d stay in light touch category.

Just add to say you’ve been reading common interview questions and practising answering them, you’ve been reading about possible career opportunities or courses you may like to try in the future. Writing some sample covering letters…

I think it's a good system if your claim is straightforward/ you're not working and just on a fixed amount each month but does seem to cause a lot of issues for some working people especially self employed. It is better being able to do things by the journal as long as someone actually answers queries. Other DWP departments are an absolute nightmare. I tried to call ESA the other day on behalf of a vulnerable client. Was on hold an hour and they refused to speak to me despite me having written consent from him to speak on his behalf. They point blank refuses to let me email our service consent form and hung up on me after I'd been on hold an hour. The only option I now have is to go to client's home as he is housebound/ disabled, sit in his flat for an hour on hold so they will speak to me to try to sort out his benefit issues. I do understand confidentiality etc but surely them refusing to accept written consent is not acceptable.

Didnt you know, when Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy ended the Vogons all went & got jobs at the DWP

Either/Or they are all revolutionary Marxists who want to wind people up so much we end up with a revolution

Glad they’ve been able to cancel it.

I deal with benefits in my job and have come across this before. In this instance, I honestly thought the work coach was doing it deliberately to be awkward for them.
The wording online says combined - shouldn’t matter if it’s from just one or both of the partners.

I remember being forced to go on a very basic how to find work course. Someone else there had already found a job and was due to start in two weeks, but he still had to attend this course to get his benefits. So much bloody box ticking.

I had to go on for a few months a couple of years ago. I'm self employed and was moving 3hrs away so lost all my clients and had to start from scratch. Fine whatever. I just needed some support for a few months while I got my business back off the ground. They bang on about creating a good CV, had to go to a job fair - where the work coach came too so he could check we all went, and his friend had a tattoo shop in the local area with a tattoo apprenticeship going. He told me to go and hand my cv in there and then said 'I'll call him later to check you did'. I'm not interested in a bloody tattoo apprenticeship, I'm interested in getting some support after paying tax for years while I rebuild my business (it literally took me only 3 months!!) they say they won't force you into a job you don't want to do which is absolute bollocks. Every time I said no sorry I'm not interested in care work or tattooing it would be 'well a jobs a job you need to take it' I have a bloody job ffs it just needed time to regain clients to earn enough. I told them the days I worked and they'd always book for me to come in on the day I said I can't, then they'd say oh no worries we can do a telephone call at that time/day instead IM STILL AT WORK???!!! How professional and client building will being on call to UC during an appointment with a client. Idiots. Thank god I'm out of that now!

The punishment is the process.

Sounds like Tax Credits, which was a nightmare and caused overpayments left right and centre. UC is designed to be flexible month to month

Well, that's spectacularly helpful. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. I assume you will be paying my bills for me then? Shall I send you my bank details?

Similar happened to me, had an appointment, but then got a job and my first day on the job was the day of the appointment. They told me I still need to attend the appointment 😂

Sometimes they can be great tho. When I lost my job due to depression and triggered a work capacity assessment, UC had me come in for a health appointment and the coach was so warm and understanding. I was petrified they will accuse me of making it up or something and sanction me!

An awful lot of things in UC are "at the discretion of the work coach" and not actually specified in regulations. There also doesn't seem to be any monitoring of work coaches' decisions, so it's like a bloody lottery. It makes it near impossible to advise people what they should be doing.

I work in welfare rights and there are 10 job centres in my "patch", but 90% of the UC problems I deal with come from just two of them. They seem to think their role is persecuting people, not helping them get back to work. Now I have enough examples, my manager is escalating this with the area manager.

It's just shit for people.

It is an utter shambles. To cut a long story short, my husband and I went from being relatively well paid earners (in law and sales) to being on UC following a mixture of redundancy, covid, pregnancy/ mat leave and then becoming emergency foster carers for my niece and nephew.
My husband eventually set up his own business, but was frequently called in to discuss the business therefore losing money on that day 🤷🏻‍♀️
The amount of times they incorrectly stopped our payments, left us very low that month and then after accepting their wrong doing took months to reimburse us was ridiculous.
One advisor accused me of failing to attend a meeting until she remembered that it was her who had cancelled it due to the snow, whilst I was on my way up to DWP offices.
To name but a few of the problems we had. Not to mention how patronising and generally unkind they were. Some I would even class as bullies.
I genuinely believe they make the system as confusing as possible to force people out. There is one rule for service users and another for them.
They make it impossible to contact them and leave so many grey areas open to interpretation that it’s impossible to know where you stand.
I will say however, that the last two work coaches we both had we’re nothing but supportive, actually used their common sense and were very compassionate.
We’re now both self employed and no longer relying on it but I would definitely attribute my worst ever period of mental health directly to our involvement with Universal Credit.

We should have migrated onto it from tax credits but we just took the hit in terms of loss of income (which was considerable as we have a child with SEND as well, who gets DLA and tax credits you had extra to recognise this).

DH works all the hours god sends, I work p time as am disabled myself but can't get PIP. So our low income has got lower.

It was just too stressful to contemplate on top of all the other nonsense we have to deal with (SEND parents with EHCPs will know).

I bet we are not the only family to make this decision. The way it is set up is punative and stress making. I do not think this is by accident, but by design, to punish the poor.

We have always worked, and always will work. Despite this we earn very little. The government needs to recognise that most people on benefits are the hard working poor, not people sat smoking joints in their PJ's and watching day time TV!

Was irritated beyond measure at Reeves in the supermarket on BBC news today. They need their verify team to look at the stats for benefits - why long term sickness has gone up since Covid (er, Long Covid and other impacts of the virus) and how much goes unclaimed!

Have you actually read anything OP has posted?

And if you can't work?

Simple solution - close your claim. Problem solved

Another fantastic idea! What happens if you can't work to support yourself?

Wish I could tell you what I really think of you

I don't think that pp has even bothered to read that OP is working, it'd mess with their Daily Mail narrative too much.