Universal credit - what do you think?

[TheArmadillo]

Can't find a thread on this so thought I'd start one.

here

and here

the things that scare me most about this are

1. all administered by one agency means if something goes wrong with your application or it is delayed you get NOTHING to live off. At least as it stands you get something from other agencies

2. withdrawing benefits completely for turning down job offers is too harsh. What if you have a good reason for turning job offer down (e.g. can't find childcare). YOu leave people again with nothing to live off. Even if it's a feckless parent - what do you do, put the children into care? How much will that cost the state.

3. how will the govt know if you have turned down job offers? They go direct to the applicant don't they. Won't it rely on people telling the govt they have turned down offers?

Going to put kids to bed now but will be back

£2.1 billion this is going to cost us

but money well spent on inflating a ministers ego to have their own cocks ups instead of just using labour systems which cocked up and then took years to sort.

ivykaty you make me laugh

Job Centre suggested I apply for jobs for which I'd had no experience or relevant qualifications. When I didn't apply for a suggested post that specifically asked for an applicant with relevant experience, they said they were stopping my benefit. I immediately wrote back saying I'd be happy to work but sending me for jobs that I had no experience of, was a waste of the prospective employers time. Conceded I was right and benefit not stopped.

So beware, they do know if you have applied for a suggested post or not.

I find it hilarious that some on here seem to think that one reason for opposing this move is objecting to the reduced need for admin staff etc.

Yeah, let's just retain people for the sake of it - splash yet more money we don't have up against the wall...

Its all bollocks if you ask me, plus the jobless figures are up ..so Dave where are all these jobs?

I had my benefits stopped for 2 months, because I didn't apply for a job once, reason why, the info they gave me to call em for an application had the wrong number on it.

I told em that and they wrote a note on the computer, I got the money back eventually after two appeals.

there was another time I went over 4 months without anything after making a new claim after coming off New Deal, they just kept telling me there was a back log of claims and it would get sorted out eventually, in the end I looked up online and found a direct number for the benefits people in Glasgow who deal with it all, they didn't have my claim, they never got sent it nor where they aware of any back logs, they posted me the claim form and I filled it out and posted it back ,got money within a weeks.

One benefit is a bad idea, the Social Security office is bad enough as it is when you have sit in there all day holding on to your number card with dossers sleeping on the seats next to you so you can get interrogated by a woman behind a screen about why you need this emergency payment of £25 for the week and you have to do that every week, one whole day spent sitting in a shit hole.

I can see it now in 2013 filled with desperate mothers because all their benefits haven't turned up due to a backlog or have been stopped because of something stupid and anal.

It scares me - and I have a job and now only get CB!

Part of wefare reform bill- a tax on child maintenance!

Some of you will already know that the Gvnt is currently consulting on its proposal to charge parents for the use of the Child Support Agency (CSA). This means that it will deduct up to 12% from the monthly child maintenance payment that you currently receive if you continue to use their service. This means an average of £24.00 will be deducted directly from you child(ren)s maintenance each and every month.

You can read the Gvnts consultation paper and respond directly at
www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2011/strengthening-families.shtml

You can say NO to a tax on child maintenance by signing an online petition at

www.ipetitions.com/petition/taxingkids/
Please sign the petition and encourage others to sign too!

Oh great. Another huge government IT project that will end up costing much more money than is projected and will run like crap because government departments are genetically incapable of running big IT projects.

If it does actually end up costing "only" £2.1billion I'll eat my own head.

ATOS has links with Unmu the American Insurance firm notorious for denying people in America insurance when they became ill.

An interesting link about ATOS and Unum and G Waddell the man behind the DWP's programme about work being good for you. Seems when you dig deep it is all about lining the pockets of those behind these schemes -

www.democraticdeficit.com/unum_provident_welfare_reform.html

Following on from the Newsnight programme the other night where they were pushing the Wisconsin model for work particularly for mothers with children - it looks dire for women as if we continue to follow that model they cut off all benefits after 2 years. Although I think you may be entitled to 5 years in total over a life time.

dcf.wisconsin.gov/w2/wisworks.htm

For all women this is even more interesting as it appears this may be your future -

www.welfarewarriors.org/CURRENT_ACTIONS.htm

I read the white paper for the universal credit today. It cleared up a few questions.

This is how it could affect women:

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/17/welfare-reform-mothers-lose-benefits

Not good.

Will you please get the spelling right it's not ATOS it's ATOSS as in "could give ATOSS".

It will be simpler. If it means women will need to seek higher paid work and not end up saddled with their children and housework then that will be all to the good although they may not feel that is so at the time. If pointless pen pushers lose their jobs whom many of us support through our labours then that is very good too. WHether it will manage any of what it sets out to achieve remains to be seen.

If it does actually end up costing "only" £2.1billion I'll eat my own head.

Lol depends on who is running it, if it's Capita £2.1billion will be spent on planning alone.

I'm confused and worried, like a lot of people I think. I feel particularly dense trying to read the Bill and apply it to my situation (very small, just starting out self-employed business with husband that is currently reliant on Tax Credits). Of course this is just the start, who knows what it'll be like by the time it's done.

Xenia, your statement confuses me even more. Maybe it's because my husband has always been the one "saddled" with the children and housework, but your statement makes it seem that one's own children are a burden to care of but to do it for others/having others do it for you would be for the good of all? My husband much prefers to care for our own than when he was doing it for others...

I just implied that some women and it is usually women don't have an incentive to work. If things are changed they might have more an incentive to do so which long term could be better for them.

I don't think the documents are very clear yet as to what the universal credit will mean and I know some people don't like the idea that benefits for long term scroungers (there are some) will be called the same as benefits for those who are i a different category and they don't all want to be lumped into the same category but I think huge amounts of time and money are wasted in fulling in very long forms about benefits and if instead there is one benefit only it has to be a good thing. Letting people keep 35p in every pound they earn if they work is pathetic. I would rather they increased the single person allowance to £10k and took more income out of the tax net or even to the full time minimum wage rate which is presumably about £12500 a year (40 hours a week at about £6).

If you could earn £12500 tax free . etc but I'm not sure if this universal credit is then itself taxed? Even better is a benefit paid to everyone over 18 whether in work or not but they will never do that - far too radical but massively simpler and those in work get and keep that too even people like I am so it's cheap and totally universal and means the workers don't subsidise the work shy quite so much and also get their own universal benefit too. I do think if they did hte maths it could work and it could mean you also cut down benefits and people have to live in hostels or with their sibiligns or neighbours if tehre is just one sum you get including houseing benefit but we never ever get suffiicnetly radical governments in this country so there's no hope of that coming in.

Mmm yes, I'm sure my sister or my neighbours would love to have my severely autistic ds living with them...

Correction, Atos assessments are undertaken by qualified nurses and doctors with a minimum 3 years post qualification experience in acute care