Forum Home → Discussion → Universal credit administration → Thread
Govt responds to Select Committee universal credit report ..
in rightsnet news today ...
some ‘interesting’ bits re advice ...
Access for intermediaries: The Committee said that some people rely on advisers and other advocates to help them to make and to resolve problems with their benefit claims; that these intermediaries need to access relevant information about the claims in order to provide assistance and to seek explanations from Department staff; and that it is not clear how intermediaries will be able to access this information when it is held online, unless the claimant is actually present and able to sign into their account.
Govt says: In cases where a claimant, for example, is seeking ad hoc advice from a local welfare advisor about how to claim online or querying the details of their entitlement, we envisage claimants will be with the intermediary when seeking help with their claim. This is no different from the current system, where advisors would normally need to work directly with the claimant to access their personal claim information. In fact, stakeholders have told us that moving to an online service will help them to support claimants as, once the system is fully automated, for the first time they will be able to see everything about the claim in one place including appointment times and entitlement.
Independent advice and support: The Committee said taht there will be a significant rise in demand for advice services for claimants. In reaction to such an increase, the Department should work with the advice sector to quantify and provide the extra resources necessary to fund retraining of advisors and the additional advice services
Govt says: The Government recognises the importance of independent advice and support. We are working with the voluntary and advice sector to start preparing for the introduction of Universal Credit. The Cabinet Office and The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) have jointly created a £65 million Advice Services Transition Fund to support the advice sector across the UK, between April 2013 and April 2015, develop new ways of working such as working in partnership with other organisations. 27. We are also developing a Local Support Services framework, which will address what support Universal Credit claimants, including those with complex needs, will require, what particular services they will need and how they will be provided through existing and new arrangements ... The framework will be the basis on which to build partnerships at a local level and develop the detail for how claimants can best be helped to make and manage a Universal Credit claim and prepare for work. We recognise the importance of registered social landlords and local voluntary organisations as part of that partnership approach.
Yes but what the government don’t say is that only 25% of the fund is available to actually provide advice
Has anyone any direct experience of being consulted about all the ‘co-development’ referred to? Do your experiences reflect what is said here?
And can someone tell the DWP that ‘transition’ is not a verb?
“Govt says: In cases where a claimant, for example, is seeking ad hoc advice from a local welfare advisor about how to claim online or querying the details of their entitlement, we envisage claimants will be with the intermediary when seeking help with their claim. This is no different from the current system, where advisors would normally need to work directly with the claimant to access their personal claim information.”
What utter rubbish! Are they really saying advisers never contact DWP or TCO without the client being present? I know I couldn’t do my job if that had to be the case. We either send an authority (TCO & sometimes DWP) or use the presumed consent DWP system.
Or have I misunderstood it? I do hope I have!
What about telephone advice?
Re-reading it, every answer is a confection of evasion, vagueness and vainglorious ideological boasting - plus the wanton torture of the English language.
If online claiming is so trendy, why assume every claimant will be physically with an adviser when they need help? With services closing will not phone and email advice become more common?
‘As the length of time is increased, those who are sanctioned become more likely to flow off benefits’ - on (or in) to what?
Passported benefits - what does all this verbiage mean?
29 pages, barely a useful or informative thing said. Why is almost nothing READY?
[ Edited: 6 Feb 2013 at 04:51 pm by Andrew Dutton ]Many of my clients dont use a computer, and wouldnt know where to start. We have also dropped down to a part time service due to funding, and the hoops we are having to jump thru just to get £17,000 from the 65 million transitional fund are ridiculous. As we are a part time service we are told that most of our work must be telephone based, and we must cut back on face to face appointments.
In light of all the above how can we give clients the service we need when we cant always see them face to face? I used the implicit consent guidelines all the time now to resolve problems with absent clients so how will this work when everything goes online? Do clients give us their username and password, and we do it all for them in their absence? What about Data protection? Will this way of doing things cause security issues or be liable to abuse? Do the coalition have the foggiest what they are doing?
Like many of you our service covers a large geographic area and it simply won’t be practical (or fair on clients) to expect them to be present everytime we need to contact UC. In many cases the issue will be technical or administrative and there will be no need for us to see the client at that time for any other reason.
It does seem reasonable to assume from DWPs response that they will not be providing any ‘escalation’ routes for advisers (like email and ex-directory phone numbers) or a claimant enquiry telephone number (as opposed to a claimant ‘digital access’ support line) and that it will be a requirement to have the claimant present (or have their log on passwords etc on record) to access any information about a UC claim.
Still we can all have fun referring cases to MPs to deal with if we can’t access information in order to advise clients.
it’s okay, says Justice Minister Jeremy Wright ....
‘For members of the public with problems no longer in scope of legal aid, the Ministry of Justice will put in place a new robust referral process to support relevant clients to resolve their problems by signposting them to suitable alternative sources of assistance where they contact the Civil Legal Advice helpline, the planned new online information service or a partner organisation, such as CABx.’
That will be really helpful (not), considering the legal aid changes mean many CABx will not be able to offer much more than a brief telephone advice slot or possibly an appointment with a generalist (i.e non-benefits trained), who is unable to do more than one initial interview, as they are not funded for casework. This will NOT provide the necessary help to those with complex problems, or those who are vulnerable.
Absolutely agree about the DWP statement:-Loads of words but no information.