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Latest press reports on UC
The Department has consulted the Advertising Standards Authority, and our adverts reflect its advice.
This is problematic, because people who might have a complaint were not able to make representations before that advice was given, which will now taint any adjudication. Which is one reason the courts cannot be consulted ahead of time for advice in this way.
The stunning success rolls on….as does the bizarre logic that because the majority are OK, that means you can ignore the people who are not.
Meanwhile ...
Tory leadership hopeful Rory Stewart has confirmed he would look again at one of the most controversial aspects of Universal Credit if he were to become prime minister.
Sajid Javid said he had no plans to make “fundamental changes” to the welfare reform, but insisted it must ensure “fairness and dignity” for claimants and proposed overhauling the current appeals system.
Jeremy Hunt said Universal Credit was the “right way forward”, but wanted to do more to “tackle in-work poverty” by ensuring the national living wage was maintained at the right level.
Michael Gove said he wanted to do more to deal with “specific problems that relate to the interaction between Universal Credit and income tax” for the “working poor”.
Dominic Raab said amendments and revisions to the system would be necessary to ensure it is “as sensitive as it needs to be for those who are struggling”, adding that Universal Credit needs to be a “safety net” as well as a “route out of the welfare trap”.
DWP is right and everyone else is wrong! Go home! Nothing to see here!
One page listed a series of “myths” about the new system, including the claim that “Universal Credit doesn’t work”, adding: “Fact: it does.”
Even by the DWP’s standards that really is something to behold
The additional line on that one is ‘People move in to work faster on UC than they did on the old system’.
I’ve raised this before, but unless there has been some new research to justify this claim, DWP is relying on information gathered years ago when all claimants were job-seekers. These stats were discredited long ago, I’m still not clear if DWP is still using them in spite of this. If they are, it’s just plain dishonest.
PCS not impressed either - https://www.pcs.org.uk/news/universal-credit-cutting-through-the-dwp-spin
This is pretty horrendous on any level (warning, there’s quite a graphic photograph down the page and I don’t mean the autoplay video of Esther McVey).
More than 17,000 people with terminal illnesses have been forced to apply for benefits through the government’s Universal Credit system, raising fears gravely sick people are resorting to foodbanks or dying before vital payments arrive.
The figures, obtained exclusively by HuffPost UK, show the sheer number of people having to navigate the government’s complex new welfare system when they are facing the end of their lives.
The data, released by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) under a Freedom of Information request, shows 17,000 people answered “yes” when asked: “Have you been diagnosed with a terminal illness” on the digital application form between 2016 and 2018.
Charities have called for an urgent reform of the system, saying thousands of terminally ill people could be missing out on crucial funds.
They claim people with terminal conditions are experiencing significant distress due to difficulties and delays in the system, and in some cases sick people are being placed at risk of infection by having to attend Jobcentre appointments – or dying before they receive payments.
Universal Credit: Number Of Terminally Ill People Forced To Claim Benefit Revealed
‘If Theresa May wants a real legacy, she should stop the universal credit fiasco that drives women into sex work’
New benefit scheme being rolled out across Basingstoke going smoothly
Mentally ill universal credit claimant receives less than £6 for month after £312 deducted for sanctions
‘The Independent was unable to confirm what the sanctions were for.’
‘A DWP spokesperson said: “We can’t look into this case without more details, so unable to say whether or not they receive any other income or benefits. We continue to pay the housing, disability and child support elements of universal credit even when someone is sanctioned.’
Errrr….......
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/dwp-universal-credit-wait-must-17241980
and of course it’s the 5-week wait and the system of advance payments that’s attracted the fraudsters and scammers…..
How Britain’s welfare state has been taken over by shadowy tech consultants
‘The DWP’s muddled maths is sending universal credit deeper into meltdown’
‘MPs demand Universal Credit advances are written off as grants and should not be repayable’
‘Universal Credit forcing parents to take out payday loans to cover childcare costs, charity says’
‘MPs demand Universal Credit advances are written off as grants and should not be repayable’
‘Universal Credit forcing parents to take out payday loans to cover childcare costs, charity says’
But Mr Tomlinson has clearly said that UC advances are not loans, they are just being paid UC early.
But it does quack, so is a duck.
Latest from Z2K:
The Advertising Standards Authority has today confirmed that it has formally written to the DWP and Associated Newspapers, stating that the complaint is now under formal investigation and that they have seven days to respond to the key points of the complaint made by Z2K about their misleading ads.
‘DWP staff cut by 21% since universal credit rollout began, figures show’
A survey of local authority landlords by the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) also revealed that the new welfare system is costing councils hundreds of thousands of pounds in extra housing management spending.
It showed that two-thirds (67%) of council tenants receiving Universal Credit are currently in rent arrears, owing an average of £564 – equivalent to seven weeks’ rent.
In comparison, 21% of households on housing benefit are in arrears, owing £221.
The proportion of Universal Credit tenants behind on the rent has fallen from 72% a year ago, while the percentage of tenants using the new welfare system has risen from 4% to 12%.
However, more than one in five (222 per 1,000) such households have received a notice seeking possession from their council in the past year, compared with just 47 in 1,000 housing benefit households.
And evictions for Universal Credit tenants stood at 2.7 per 1,000 – three times more than the 0.9 per 1,000 for those on housing benefit.
Tenancy abandonment levels were 1.6 per 1,000 Universal Credit households, compared with just 0.1 for housing benefit households.
From Inside Housing Council tenants on Universal Credit 16 times more likely to abandon tenancies
Jeremy Hunt vows to scrap hated five-week wait
‘The Tory leadership hopeful and underdog in the contest said Work and Pensions secretary Amber Rudd had “persuaded him” that change is needed to stop Brits falling into debt at the beginning of their swap to the new system.’
From Amber Rudd on Twitter:
Earlier this year I wrote to local and regional newspapers editors, inviting them to send a reporter to a local Jobcentre.
I thought I’d share just some of the inspiring stories I’ve enjoyed reading ...
More: https://twitter.com/AmberRuddHR/status/1151402462349352962
[ Edited: 18 Jul 2019 at 12:02 pm by shawn mach ]From Amber Rudd on Twitter:
The usual propaganda from DWP at the end of this report.
Harrogate Advertiser ‘Revealed - Universal Credit ‘pilot’ starts in Harrogate’
‘The DWP confirmed to the Harrogate Advertiser that the pilot had now begun and would last for at least a year but that no one would lose out financially as a result of the changes.’
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/people-without-mobile-phones-facing-18794055
‘People without mobile phones facing delays on lifeline Universal Credit payments’
Neil Couling on Twitter:
Our partners, as well as colleagues working for DWP are worried that scaremongering and misrepresentation of actual reality of #UniversalCredit is causing claimants to delay making claims. So I applaud my colleagues for tackling this issue in innovative new ways #MythBusting
From today’s Work and Pensions Committee report on the ‘Welfare safety net’:
The Department is concerned that people are being put off applying for Universal Credit by what it has called “scaremongering”. Unless it defines what is “acceptable” and measures whether that is being achieved, it cannot confidently claim to be delivering a consistently high-quality service, and in so doing refute the “scaremongering” allegations.
‘If it was so wonderful, you wouldn’t have to advertise it’ - Frank Field’s response to £225k cost of Metro campiagn, confirmed in DWP letter deposited in House of Commons library yesterday.
‘Surge in EU citizens unfairly refused access to universal credit’
‘Surge in EU citizens unfairly refused access to universal credit’
The DWP said it was not aware of a rise in tribunal cases involving habitual residence test decisions. Universal credit decision makers were specially trained and mentored in this area. A DWP spokesperson said: “Staff must pass rigorous training before taking these decisions and we expect them to offer a high standard of support to help people with the evidence they need to provide.”
Major housing associations have told Inside Housing that they could incur extra costs and see resources diverted from mitigating the impacts of Universal Credit, unless the government makes swift changes to the way rent changes are recorded, and allows them to update information in bulk.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) told housing associations in February that it would enable them to record rent cost changes in bulk on behalf of tenants claiming the new benefit system from April. But Inside Housing understands these changes were never put in place.
Currently, the DWP requires individual claimants to declare when their rent and service charges change in their Universal Credit online journals, with benefit entitlements calculated accordingly.
But there are concerns that many tenants do not know about this requirement and do not register the changes, leading to them being paid the wrong Universal Credit housing costs.
Social landlords face huge admin burden over Universal Credit issue
Thinking off the top of my head (rarely a wise thing), isn’t this the sort of change that could see claimants underpaid for the period that the decrease in social housing rents happens?
Amber Rudd in the Harrogate Advertiser:
“Our aim is that every single person in the pilot in Harrogate has a positive experience ....”