The gaping hole in Tory logic that makes Universal Credit a universal disaster
Lord Henley must know perfectly well that advance payments are just that – early payment of money that would normally be due later. They’ll be subtracted from any future benefit payout, making claimants no better able to cope with the debt the waiting rule intentionally forces them to rack up.
And this is the point: The seven-day waiting rule pushes debt onto benefit claimants that they should not have to suffer.
We all pay our taxes – all of us, either directly or indirectly. The Tories do not have any grounds to deny social security benefits to those of us who are in need.
And when their excuses are as ridiculous as Lord Henley’s, they really deserve to have the ground pulled out from under them.
Universal credit claimants are being forced to turn to pay day lenders and loan sharks by delays in payments, peers have warned.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats urged ministers at Lords question time to drop a seven-day waiting rule for new claimants.
But Work and Pensions minister Lord Henley defended the current rules, saying claimants could apply for advance payments if they were in need.
Source: Universal credit claimants ‘turning to loan sharks because of payment delays’
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
I can’t, I don’t have any credit. What credit companies don’t mention is that they require an advanced payment, I know because someone tried to use my Identity to get payday loans, as a result two lots of £79 was removed from my bank account.
I got it back and I was compensated, but it did leave me with a credit mark against my name. Added to the fact, that I don’t have any family to get help from, so how am I supposed to survive? Even if I did have family, there is no guarantee that they could help especially if they are in the same position.
Another totally out of touch Lord with little in the way of brain cells or common sense. If someone needs help waiting seven days is just not on and is that 7 working days or calender days? Actually promoting another alternative admin heavy route of advanced payments just incurs admin costs making just give them their entitlement
a cheaper and quicker route. Some of these dim Lords and Sirs “yes men” just do ones head in.
Mark Kermode on the BBC News Channel (Freeview 130) when reviewing Ken Loache’s film “I, Daniel Blake” described the new social security inflicted on the country as “… a harrowing tale about how bureaucracy and bureaucratic inefficiency can be used as a means of repression”. I think this sums up Universal Credit perfectly.
I resent paying certain taxes, because, when I fall on hard time and need money, I am denied help. What’s the point? I might as well keep the money. Why should I have to pay tax on money that I have not earnt, yet not be entitled to benefit, when I am not earning? Sense? You tell me. I don’t bother to sign on; maybe, that’s what the Tories desire, red or blue so, I don’t appear on the official unemployment figures.
The problem with the DWP’s “well-established system of hardship payments, benefit advances and budgeting loans” is that they are all loans and must be repaid under Universal Credit.
Under Universal Credit, hardship payments must be … — Twishort https://twishort.com/3Uwhc
Get an advance payment of Universal Credit – Citizens Advice https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/apply/get-advance-payment/
The advance payment is a loan – you’ll have to pay it back. The repayments will be automatically deducted from your Universal Credit payments until the advance is fully paid back. This means that you’ll get smaller Universal Credit payments while you pay back the advance payment, which will take at least 3 months.
Always said that UC was a huge white elephant!
Universal Credit was the most scary thing that I had heard about, when it was discussed at a Union meeting, some years since; it can actually end careers! If you are self-employed and fall on hard times, God help you, nobody else will be able to. Only evil persons would dream up such a thing and try to pass it off as help, assistance, aye, like a hand on the head of a drowning man!