Category Archives: Universal Credit

Changes to Universal Credit rules may mean visiting the Job Centre every working day for two weeks

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The big downsides of the Tory government’s plan to push Universal Credit claimants into more work are starting to be seen now.

These follow on from the decision to change the Administrative Earnings Threshold (AET) for the benefit, by hours worked, to 15 hours per week for single claimants and 24 hours per week for couples.

It means 120,000 people have been moved from ‘Light Touch’ into an ‘Intensive Work Search’ group since February 27.

They’ll be required to attend more face-to-face meetings with a work coach – but I bet they didn’t bargain on the number of meetings they’ll have to take on.

The move means Universal Credit claimants could now be forced to attend jobcentres 10 times in the space of two weeks, according to the Daily Record.

What if a single person is working three hours a day, at awkward times, and the Job Centre is a long way away?

Bear in mind that after receiving UC for 13 weeks, failure to attend Job Centre meetings will mean a benefit sanction – or possibly the loss of it altogether.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, whose members in the civil service are likely to have to administer this change, has damned it as an attack on UC claimants.

It has stated: “We oppose the introduction of any regime that results in more sanctions for claimants and that there is a mass of evidence that the threat of sanctions does nothing to help claimants find work.”

That’s a bit of a blow for Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, who allegedly intends to increase benefit sanctions hugely in his Budget.

The Tory government is insisting that its new regime will help UC claimants get back into work, or increase their earnings – by tailoring its support to focus on specific steps.

But This Writer has seen no evidence to support its claim – and evidence against benefit sanctions has been widely available for many years.

Is this just another attack on the most vulnerable people in the UK?

Source: DWP: New changes for benefit claimants mean you will be forced to attend the job centre ’10 times over a 2-week period’

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Universal Credit isn’t enough to live on – and the DWP is making it more conditional

Research has shown that people can’t afford to live on Universal Credit – and the Department for Work and Pensions is responding by making it harder to hold onto a claim.

The DWP’s policy was recently articulated as ensuring that work always pays more than living on benefits – and this is increasingly a problem for poverty-stricken individuals and families, because wages are being pushed through the floor.

The reason for this is to maximise profits for big firms; if they keep their wage bills down, they can pass more profit to their shareholders.

They don’t care about employees’ ability to pay bills because they make most of their money abroad – or the bill-payers are practical hostages, with no alternative options for the services they are being pushed into poverty to buy.

That’s why this has happened:

Universal Credit payments are well short of the amount needed for people to afford essentials, two of the UK’s most prominent anti-poverty organisations warn.

Joint research… by the Trussell Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that the standard allowance is £35 too low for a single person and £66 for a couple.

Nine out of 10 people on low incomes are going without essentials, the JRF found.

Researchers estimates a single person needs at least £120 per week, while couples have to have at least £200 a week, just to afford essential items.

You might expect the DWP to change direction. You’d expect wrong.

The latest development from the government department is to make receipt of UC conditional on jumping through even more hoops than people already do.

Individuals working at least 15 hours per week and couples working 24 hours or more between them will be moved from the ‘Light Touch’ group to the ‘Intensive Work Search’ group.

They will have increased scrutiny placed on them to find work and develop a career. It also means they are expected to search for opportunities to take up more or better paid work and research new career options.

Combined with a previous increase in September, this will mean around a quarter of a million more people will have been moved into ‘Intensive Work Search’.

Failure to meet the new conditions will mean sanctions and possible denial of the benefit altogether.

The DWP and its ministers talk up the change as though it’s an opportunity; it isn’t.

It is merely piling more stress onto people whose minds are already overtaxed with simply trying to make ends meet.

Source: Universal Credit ‘at least £35 too low for buying essentials’ government told and DWP issues new rules for people working while receiving Universal Credit – all you need to know</a

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Lee Anderson sticks his foot in his mouth yet again (Universal Credit)

Lee Anderson (right): he wants to starve the children of people on Universal Credit who can’t afford to feed them properly, it seems.

Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson has made a fool of himself yet again.

In a Westminster Hall debate on the cost of food, he claimed it is a myth that people on Universal Credit are in poverty – as an excuse not to provide free school meals to everybody on the benefit.

He said some had “household incomes of over £40,000 a year” and “loopholes” in London allowed them to “top their wages up” by a further £30,000.

Maybe it’s true – but I doubt it. Universal Credit is paid to people on low incomes. For every pound earned above a defined allowance, 55p is removed from the amount a household receives.

With UC set at £334.91 a month for single claimants aged 25 or over, or £525.72 a month for joint claimants with either aged 25 or over, it is impossible for people to bring in £40k a year and still be on the benefit.

(It is also worth noting that the DWP stuck its own departmental foot in its spokesperson’s mouth when they said benefits are designed to ensure that “working always pays more” – because government policy for the last 13 years has been to push wages below the poverty level.)

Source: Tory deputy chairman claims it is a ‘myth’ people on Universal Credit are in poverty

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If you’re long-term sick, brace yourself: Labour wants to send you back to work

Is Labour actually trolling people on long-term sickness and disability benefits?

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth has given a speech about “encouraging” people with medical conditions off state benefits and into work – at the Centre for Social Justice, the think tank founded by Iain Duncan Smith, the former WP secretary whose ‘reforms’ are believed to have killed off thousands of sick and disabled people.

He said Labour would abolish the requirement for claimants to re-take the hated Work Capability Assessment if they take a job that doesn’t work out for them and have to quit.

A Labour government would let them return to claiming benefits without reassessment if they do so within a year.

That’s all very well – but how much pressure would a Labour government pile on people claiming those benefits, to take jobs in the first place?

Read more here in the BBC article, here.

Notice there are no comments from anybody representing disabled people or those with long-term illnesses.

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‘Universal Credit Sanctions Back With A Vengence’ – and we know why, don’t we?

The words of Charlotte from The Poor Side of Life speak for themselves:

It was recently announced during a Commons debate in parliament that Universal Credit sanctions (UC) are “back with a vengeance”.

According to the released figures the sanction rates are now 250% higher than they were for the three months before the pandemic.

In layman’s terms it amounts to 2.5% of UC claimants being sanctioned each month which is almost double the amount when compared to 1.4% before the pandemic.

In June 2022 £34 million was taken away from claimants as a result of being sanctioned. This was followed in July 2022 by £34.9 million and then in August taking the total to over £36 million.

This totals … £100 million which has literally been taken from vulnerable claimants that were already struggling to pay for basic necessities.

According to pensions minister Guy Opperman, 98.2 per cent of sanctions are for missing a meeting with a work coach.

Charlotte rightly says this makes no sense, because Universal Credit claimants are generally desperate for their payments; it is a condition of the benefit that it is not paid for at least five weeks after a claim is submitted (a whole calendar month plus seven days).

This means many have to apply for an advance payment – on loan – beforehand, and consequently receive much less than they need to survive, for a long period thereafter.

And then we’re expected to believe that they wilfully miss meetings with the people who control those payments?

It doesn’t ring true, does it?

This Writer has covered a series of cases in which failure to attend meetings was alleged. The claimants themselves said either that they had been given late notice of a meeting, that it was deliberately timed to clash with another appointment (most commonly medical) that they could not miss, or that they simply had not been informed about it at all.

The implication is that the Department for Work and Pensions, which administers Universal Credit, is not to be trusted.

The problem with that is, often claimants either don’t have the financial stability to launch a challenge against an unfair decision, or they simply don’t have the mental or physical energy.

Source: Universal Credit Sanctions Back With A Vengence ‹ The poor side of life ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

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DWP back in court over legacy benefits during Covid – and staff are set to strike

Habitual cruelty: if you thought the Tories stopped persecuting people with long-term illnesses and disabilities during the Covid-19 crisis, think again.

The Department for Work and Pensions has had an easy time of it from the media over the past few years, partly because of the Covid-19 crisis.

And this is surprising because the DWP’s behaviour during that crisis has not covered it in glory.

As many thousands of working people suddenly found themselves claiming Universal Credit in order to make ends meet, they were granted a (temporary) £20-per-week uprating to keep them sweet and make them think UC is a fair benefit for people on low incomes.

People on so-called ‘legacy’ benefits like Employment and Support Allowance didn’t get the uprating.

Some of them grouped together to challenge the deliberate omission in the courts – which dismissed their case last year.

But they were back at the High Court on Wednesday (December 7, 2022) for an appeal. Here‘s The Canary:

If successful, the case could be worth up to £1,500 to every legacy benefit claimant. The court livestreamed the appeal, which you can watch by clicking through to YouTube here.

Claimants have been forced to take the DWP to court numerous times in recent years. Invariably, these cases have seen people fighting for their basic rights.

The Canary has witnessed first hand in recent years chronically ill and disabled people, and non-working social security claimants, having to fight the DWP – the government department charged with allegedly supporting their welfare. It’s perverse that they have to battle the department for their fundamental rights in the first place. However, this is indicative of a system where their treatment as second-class citizens is entrenched.

Meanwhile, members of the PCS Union who work at the DWP are striking from December 19-31 – because they want more pay. The irony is striking.

That being said, it would be wrong to suggest that working people should not be paid enough to make ends meet. If they don’t have that, they should be awarded it. That should go without saying but in a Tory-run UK we can’t count on it any more.

This Writer only wishes that those DWP employees would have the presence of mind to realise that it is hypocritical to complain about having too little to survive after having denied it to people with long-term illnesses and disabilities for so many years.

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DWP Hide Details Of Forced Transition To Universal Credit Pilot From MPs | The poor side of life

Once again the Department for Work and Pensions has been caught hiding information – this time not just from the public but from MPs as well.

Here’s The Poor Side of Life:

The DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) have once again been found to have covered up data from a forced transition pilot which took place in Harrogate.

Not only have they tried to hide this information from the public they’ve also hidden the details from MPs.

There is evidence of the DWP covering up not only the details of the forced pilot which took place in Harrogate, but also details of their incompetence.

This relates to the forced transition from legacy benefits to UC (Universal Credit). The social security advisory committee (SSAC) has been reported saying to MPs that there is a need for external scrutiny of the worrying process this month.

Steve McCabe MP for Birmingham Selly Oak has disclosed that copies of the Harrogate forced transition pilot report on the Harrogate pilot have been placed in the House of Commons library, after being entirely redacted with the exception of the words ‘Moved to Universal Credit’ and ‘User research’.

The total redaction tells us one thing, the DWP doesn’t want to let MPs know the details of the pilot and what happened. It goes without saying that they don’t want the public to know these details either.

Steve McCabe also gave details concerning a constituent who was left in a very bad both physically and mentally leaving the constituent in distress. The DWP reported that she failed to respond correctly to a migration notice despite already being told that she didn’t have a computer at home.

He went on to say that she attempted to phone the DWP but could’nt find anyone to speak to. She also sent a letter by recorded delivery at her expense which the department ‘thought’ that they didn’t receive it. This left her without any payments for many weeks.

Charlotte Pickles, a member of SSAC (Social Security Advisory Committee), told MPs that the SSAC believed that some kind of external scrutiny of the ‘scary’ migration process is needed which will then supposedly give people forced to transition confidence that the process will be fair.

She went on to say, “We are all very aware that for some groups, in particular, UC is quite a scary proposition. If you are sitting on a legacy benefit or you are a tax credit claimant, you possibly, likely, in certain groups, are very nervous and possibly reluctant to make that move to UC.”

After all who can blame them. The DWP are concealing important details not only from MPs but the public as well. The evidence from the Harrogate trial should be provided in an open and transparent way and any failings dealt with before expanding forced migration to Universal Credit.

Concealing evidence such as this will result in a failure of responsibility from the DWP and will undoubtably result in suffering and distress for those forced to move to Universal Credit.

At the time of writing the DWP are still hiding these details.

Source: DWP Hide Details Of Forced Transition To Universal Credit Pilot From MPs – The poor side of life

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Tories will punish up to 120,000 working people by cutting their benefits

People who work 15 hours a week – or less – will lose benefits in the latest Tory attack on the poor.

It’s not being reported on the BBC today (September 23), but Kwasi Kwarteng was set to announce that from January next year, 120,000 benefit claimants could see their payments reduced if they fail to work up to 15 hours a week, meet regularly with their work coach and take active steps to increase their earnings.

So people who are already struggling to make ends meet amid the Tory-created cost-of-living crisis are to be punished while – for example – bankers are to enjoy huge increases in income with the removal of the cap on their bonuses.

There is no good reason for either measure but the Tory excuse for hammering the working poor is that there are 1.2 million job vacancies after Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Presumably the people being targeted are being expected to take 10 jobs each.

There’s an elephant in the room here, though: how much do these 1.2 million jobs pay? What holidays are offered? What about sick pay? In short: will people actually be better-off for taking them?

New Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith says they will: “We are committed to helping people on lower incomes to boost their pay – because we know work is one of the best ways to support your family and help grow our economy.

“Whether it’s increasing their hours in their current role, entering a new sector or switching careers, we want people of all ages and all stages to be able to progress into fulfilling careers.”

But is it just propaganda?

Maximilien Robespierre thinks it is:

“Give them a job – any job – to meet a target… and sell it as work to help people out of a disaster – that being the cost-of-living crisis.

“Notice [Chloe Smith] did not say anything here about better benefits. Many people can’t work, or find jobs that either suit their skills or are in their vicinity.

“This is about punishing people at the bottom and reducing numbers on benefits, which we have seen comes at a huge human cost.“

Is Coffey’s plan to get 114,000 UC claimants into jobs a bid to break coming strikes?

Therese Coffey: is her latest attack on UC claimants an attempt to break forthcoming industrial disputes?

I spotted this on David Hencke’s Westminster Confidential site, which you really should be reading.

Let’s set the scene:

The Department of Work and Pensions is to tighten the rules significantly to force 114,000 existing Universal Credit claimants into work as job vacancies soar across Britain.

She is changing the rules so far more people will have to go on what is known as an intensive work search regime where they will be monitored continually by work coaches on how many jobs they have applied for and why they didn’t get them.

The [Social Security Advisory] committee approved the idea on February 4 but agreed to keep the decision secret until last week when it published the minutes of a meeting between DWP officials and the committee.

To make the change the government is using a regulation to uprate what is known as the Administrative Earnings Threshold – a device which sets the level of benefit and earnings dividing those who only receive ” a light touch” regime – ie occasional checks whether they are seeking work – from their local job centre and those put on intensive work search programmes. Those who refuse or don’t co-operate properly with face benefit cuts as a sanction.

It will move the level from £355 to £494 a month for a single claimant and from £567 to £782 a month for a couple. At present some 250,000 people covered by the intensive work search programme are in work – this will increase the number by 50 percent. The government justify it by saying the new level brings it into line with recent rises in the national minimum wage for those in work.

Some of us already knew the above. I’ve reported it already.

But here’s the really nasty part:

Questioned about the current job vacancies level encouraging this move officials said: “the vacancies position the labour market is considered by some to be hot which could be driving inflation.”

In other words by getting more of the unemployed into work, employers would have a bigger pool of labour and would not have to offer higher wages or even compensate people for the rising cost of living.

There may now be an even more compelling reason as Therese Coffey wants this to be law from September 26, since the government plans to use agency workers to break the coming strike wave. What would suit ministers would be if the unemployed could be drafted in as agency workers leading to confrontation with striking workers on trains, buses, schools, the NHS, and the post office with shouts of ” scab” and bringing the police in to make mass arrests of strikers.

How vindictive. How very Tory.

Source: Coffey sneaks through tough plan to push 114,000 Universal Credit claimants into jobs while Parliament is in recess | Westminster Confidential

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Universal Credit rule change means working people may lose payments

Therese Coffey: would you trust her to make sure you knew about a change that could affect your income, when she could just sneak it out quietly and knock you off her DWP books?

Working people who still have to claim Universal Credit may have their payments stopped because of a rule change being sneaked in by Therese Coffey.

At the moment, people do not have to continue attending regular Job Centre appointments to seek more work if they are employed for the equivalent of nine hours a week.

The Work and Pensions Secretary wants to raise that to 12 hours, meaning more people would have to return to interviews.

No specific date has been set for the change, meaning UC claimants will have to be aware of what is happening. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is notorious for failing to notify people of changes and then suspending or cancelling their benefits.

Of course, the change means the DWP will need to employ more people as work coaches – if the Treasury provides some cash for it. So that’s an opportunity for someone.

Then again, This Writer wonders whether Coffey would be happy with the advice that may be provided by people who have endured her welfare regime.

Source: Major DWP rule changes could see Universal Credit payments stopped

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https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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