Panorama The Universal Credit Crisis. Tonight 7.30pm.

[HelenaDove]

Catrin Nye
‏Verified account @CatrinNye
23h23 hours ago

One of the first councils to have Universal Credit rolled out in their area have let our cameras behind the scenes in their housing department.

For 9 months we've been following them and people living on the new benefit

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45893616

Sounds interesting, I'd watch it, but I'm on universal credit and can't afford to pay the license fee... Nuff sed.

Does it address the issue of people on UC being unable to get the free prescriptions they are entitled to, and being sent demands for payments of charges and fines because the DSS and the NHS Payments dept haven't managed to get the system right? People who are on UC because of chronic health problems, so more likely to need vital medications are having to choose not taking their medication versus continual harassment by debt collections firms for non payments of charges and fines they should not be liable to in the first place.
Disgraceful.

@FadedRed i saw someone post on fb that they had been charged £300.

on now

@HelenaDove It was featured on Radio 4 'You and Yours' programme last Thursday lunchtime edition. First I'd heard, but it's being going on since the UC first started, so enough time to have been sorted out by now. Although it shouldn't have happened in the first place, does no-one in government live on the same planet or have any common sense to prevent this sort of rediculous situation happening in the first place?

Channel 4 news have covered UC tonight as well because of the UN visit. Just caught it on Channel4+1

Ta @FadedRed Will take a look for that on i player.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/welfare/2017/11/universal-credit-flaw-forcing-patients-risk-50-prescription-fine

The whole universal credit is a shit show. The government know it, they don't care. It seems that a lot of people believe the government want exactly what's happening.
They're pandering to the people that watch benefit porn on channel 5 and believe poor people just need punishing to do better, that starvation and homelessness is some kind of motivational tactic.

Thing is, the government won't fix it, to them it's working as designed.

I'm only half way through watching this programme. I volunteer at CAB, and there is no doubt UC is causing hardship. BUT, for people deemed vulnerable the housing element of UC can still be paid direct to the landlord. I've arranged this many times, it can be done by a third party, despite what they say. I appreciate this might be LA/HA dependent.

The problem is when the UC doesn't cover the rent, because it doesn't sometimes, or the rent and nothing else to live on.

The people are, for reasons they cannot figure out why, not getting their full entitlement.

posted this on the other thread too but more people will turn to sex work.