Coronavirus: DWP adds insult to injury over tax credit and Universal Credit claims
It seems the Department for Work and Pensions has found a new way to humiliate benefit claimants during the coronavirus crisis.
The government department that handles the benefit system is using tax credit records to check the identities of people claiming Universal Credit.
But it is then cancelling the tax credit claims – regardless of whether the UC claim is allowed – because UK citizens are not permitted to receive tax credits after claiming UC.
It seems it does not matter if the claim is successful.
The government refuses to provide guidance on whether a person is better-off claiming tax credits or Universal Credit.
It seems this, as part of 20 new measures brought in to speed up the assessment of two million UC claims since the coronavirus lockdown started, has made it possible to get nine payments out of every 10 to the claimant on time.
I wonder how many claims have been successful, though – and how many tax credit claims have been cancelled, leaving the claimant with nothing?
Apparently the DWP’s Universal Credit supremo, Neil Couling, reckons many of the measures will be retained after the crisis is over – but the requirement to seek work will return.
No surprises there, then! Forcing people not only to look for jobs but to seek more hours and better pay – despite the fact that employers offer the exact opposite – is the contradiction at the heart of Universal Credit.
And Mr Couling says nothing to suggest the government will push employers to provide better offers.
Source: New Universal Credit measures to remain after lockdown eased | Express & Star
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The best thing about the lockdown is that the Jobcentres are closed, appointments suspended, and Benefits paid automatically. Keep it that way.
As you say, Mike. They’ve been going on and on for years about “cracking down on the scroungers” when all along they’ve really needed to be cracking down on the lousy, greedy, penny pinching bosses.