More major flaws with UC -
If you make a claim for UC too close to your pay date, you will lose out on hundreds or even over a thousand a year UC (some months you will get no UC at all as it 'looks' to the system as if you have been paid double from work) compared to someone who makes the claim far away from their pay date. Four single mothers challenged this in the high court, UC was ruled as 'unlawful' , the judge described the system as 'irrational' and 'nonsensical', but the DWP are still seeking to appeal the ruling. So you have the crazy situation whereby two people with the EXACT same circumstances, number of DC and income and expenditure, can receive different UC amounts just because of the date they made the claim. See here -www.leighday.co.uk/News/2019/January-2019/High-Court-finds-DWP-unlawful-on-universal-credit
Childcare has to be paid upfront on UC before any reimbursement, which is a barrier to many in starting work. Also the caps on the amounts they will accept for childcare are not matched with the real cost of childcare. They reimburse UP TO 85% of £646 for one child or £1100 for 2 or MORE children a month. We all know that childcare can and does way way exceed those amounts easily, especially during summer holidays.
If you have any old debts they can be taken at 40% (!!) of the personal allowance - so 40% of your income to live on gone. They can even exceed this 40% if they want to.
Everyone claiming or changing to UC starts off in debt immediately. As you are just not paid for 5 weeks. You can take out a 'loan' from UC to live on for the 5 weeks, but then your payments are reduced for a year in order to pay back the loan.
These are just some of the reasons UC doesn't work, and pushes people into poverty and towards foodbanks. I wish there was more awareness of what Uc is doing to people.