Universal Credit

[Undercoverbanana]

Are we all going to be ok? Just that, really. I'm really worried about the social consequences of all this.

I think there are a lot of problems at the moment- people being evicted because rent is not getting paid due to delays in payments, people being left without money for weeks on end etc. It makes families still on tax credits feel quite fortunate. Also some of the job coaches seem to be very over zealous asking lone parents to look for more working hours than they should be. I think a lot of the problem is that as usual the DWP employees don't really know what they are doing and training has been inadequate.

I'm going to make larger donations to the food bank. I don't know how else to help. I'm beginning to hate this country.

It's a 40 day turn around and for lone parents you change over slowly one benefit at a time goes to monthly pay if it works it goes smoothly when it doesn't work it's awful

You can ask for an advance on uc plus they should give you enough notice to save something up stock up on food etc

But yes the lone parent thing sucks so does them calling you in for meetings with your advisor when your supposed to be fucking working

Abbi - what practical things can people do to help their neighbours and their community? (Apart from start a bloody revolution?)

On paper, UC is a good idea. People paid monthly to mirror how you are (usually) paid when working, HB paid to the tenant who then has to be responsible for paying their rent (just as they would be in work), an earnings taper so people can increase their hours without that sudden cut off at 16/24 hours.

Unfortunately, the reality of delivering UC is not looking so good. However, I do believe that whilst charities provide food/monetary support there is no onus on DWP to improve the delivery of this service.

And therein lies the rub, a decent society will always look after its weaker/vulnerable members and whilst it does that, Government is effectively given a "get out of jail free" card.

No easy answers, the delivery of benefits in any shape and form will always be contentious........

As a practical step reach out meetings are good if you can find someone to run them there are still people refusing to believe it will happen to them and they will suffer when it does people on benefits need a good run up to this saving money food and vouchers is good advice pre warning the landlord the rent that is four weekly in arrears will most likely be late personally I've scraped up a months rent and the Iceland card where you can save pennies and pounds on all mounts up food banks should be a last resort but if you can donate please do

Anyone in the phone industry out there? How can we help people to access this phone number without paying this outrageous cost? Someone, somewhere is making a fucking fortune at the expense of the most vulnerable in our society. People who are mentally unwell, disabled people, people who have been through traumatic circumstances. Doctors are not allowed to let terminally ill people die with dignity and compassion, but this government can drive people to destitution and suicide for profit. Fucking bastards. There must be more we can do??? Anyone????

I’ve just helped the CAB write a report on Universal Credit by sharing my story with them about some serious consequences they have caused me. The report will be published in a couple of weeks.

The CAB are confident that this report will have a significant impact on the way UC is being rolled out

Undercover They’ve announced today that they’re making it free. Theresa May announced it.

Meanwhile if you download an App called ‘Saynoto0870’ and type the number in, it may give you a landline alternative x

Our jobcentre let you use their phone to call

Protecting - someone told me that it won't be free for ages yet. I don't trust news sites in this country anymore as they are so biased, so rely on word of mouth news or what I see for myself.

Abbi - do they all advertise that service? People need to know this! Vulnerable people are being exploited and need to be directed to the Job Centres to make their calls. Still doesn't help the disabled or those unable to get to a Job Centre easily ...... Because they are trying to hold down work, for example. The whole system is twisted.

I really see an opportunity to reset this whole system here to make it far more accessible and fair for these people.

I think it will be okay op , unfortunately that's a long way off.

We are a low income working family (caring professions surprisingly) and have had to move to UC. Now we're lucky because we had savings to fall back on while we waited for our initial payment and were just able to make ends meet but it's been tricky still.

We found the back to work coach to be lacking in knowledge in anything other than basic facts that can be found online anyway.

Our first payment was missing half of what should've been there due to a silly error.

The online system is flawed as there isn't always a response/way to deal with your specific query.

As I said , we have an income and also a small savings pot and we're computer literate, yet it took months for our award to be paid correctly.

Had we been fully reliant on UC we'd have had to ask family for loans and food donations.

The whole thing needs scrapping... it’s a cruel system that barely works and it’s pushing families and children into poverty

Sadly most people don’t give a shit as they just hear “benefits” and think “scroungers”

But What people aren’t wrapping their tiny minds around is that many people claiming it are FULL TIME WORKING 😡

I volunteer for a service that helps vulnerable people and UC makes my blood boil ...and I’ll fight to my last breath til it’s scrapped

Calling - you only have to ask people and find out that these are mainly working people with children to feed. We are so ignorant in this country. What service to you volunteer with and why are we not more angry about this?

Full service UC was rolled out in some areas as a government pilot, however despite it having many problems, not working and causing immense hardship the government are pressing ahead. What is the point in having a pilot if you are going to ignore the resulting problems and rectify them?

I work in a full UC area and agree that the public do not realise that many of these UC claimants are already working on low pay. There are numerous examples of families in hardship even without bureaucratic delay and errors.

Currently only people making a new claim for means tested benefits have to claim UC and there is no transitional period, the moment a person claims UC all of the other means tested benefits stop.

Yes there are advance payments available of up to half the monthly amount, however this is recovered over a six month period. The advance is not available until the claim has been verified which takes at least a couple of weeks.

There is no entitlement for the first week of claim and most people living on low income do not have enough savings to last a month and effectively are being told to live on half of a low income for 1 month (the advance) and reduced income for the next 6 months (the repayment)

Imagine if today your employer said I'm not going to pay you or your partner this month, I will pay you at the end of November and when I do it will only be one months wage. How many people could manage and how much of that pay would you owe out in November? This is the reality.

Undercover ...i am a family support worker with HomeStart

And agree ...there should be Riots like there was for poll tax in the 80s

undercover I think the public are not more angry about this because this government and the media have successfully demonised benefit claimants over the years as undeserving and shirkers. We are constantly bombarded with newspaper articles and TV programmes portraying feckless people receiving thousands of pounds in benefits.

The headline of UC making work pay is extremely biased and misleading,

Nanna- I think some of the back to work coaches fail to realise that a lot of UC claiments work too.

I had to pop in for a UC interview to verify identity etc. I arrived all sweaty and dishevelled as I'd had a mad dash from work. The work coach greeted me with "Hi I'm David and I'll be helping you get back into work". After spending most of the previous afternoon filling out their wonderful online application form I wasn't in the best of spirits...

Exactly Nanna 😡

Uc is awful.. my family has been on it for over a year and it is has done is caused us drama, the payments are never right let alone on time. When you do get you first payment it does seem a long time you can get a advance but you have to pay it back not sure how that works as it is your own money. We nearly got evicted because of uc our landlord clearly doesn't understand the way universal credit actually works they read it online then repeat to people😞 it really is a bad system and I don't wish for anyone to be on it. My dp had to stop work because of Issues we don't get what we are supposed to because they say he is still earning when he isn't. We have changed circumstances on there 3 times and there system still says NO. It is ridiculous we are owed money and going round in circles. Uc think u pay money for rent and that's it. Mine just covers my rent and two bills and then nothing left over for the month, I don't understand how they expect people to live. I literally get nothing. They should scrap housing benefit out of it because it puts people in arrears like it does to us. And the money you are supposed to get as a couple and for children isn't actually what it is. The whole thing is just a joke makes me mad even writing about it. People on here just seem to go on about first payment what about after yeah u wait 6 weeks for the 1st one then what comes after that no one likes to enlighten anyone on it.

So why are people not out on the streets? Are we all being blinded by thus Brexit nonsense that we don't see what we're complicit in? Is it because the only people anyone listens to are the DM and wanker bankers?

People with savings over £16k will not be able to claim UC which basically would rule out / penalise anyone saving for a house deposit etc. savings between 6k and 16k and the UC amount will be reduced.

Undercoverbanana- because people don't care unless they are directly affected by the change.
Many also believe (...and I am one of them), that the benefits system needed to change and UC is what is currently on offer.
I haven't seen anywhere realistic suggestions as to how to improve this current system. So unfortunately we are stuck with it. And the old system was flawed, open to fraud and financially unsustainable. So where should we go from here?