Universal Credits- a new nightmare

Brilliant Christmas card here.

www.cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/Austerity%20Generation%20FINAL.pdf

Child poverty action group says that a million more children will be in poverty because of universal credit.

"I’m a doctor. This is a real conversation I had with the Job Centre:

“Hi, I don’t think Miss X is well enough to come to your appointment…”

“It’s a term of her benefits that she has to come.”

“I know, but I don’t think she’s well enough. Can you rearrange it?”

“So she came to your appointment?”

“Yes, but…”

“Then she can come to ours.”

“But she’s not well and I’m her doctor.”

“And she wants benefits and so she has to come here.”

“So you’re saying that she has to either jeopardise her health by coming to your meeting, or not receive any money.”

“If you’re trying to make me feel guilty you’re speaking to the wrong person.”‘

Says it all really, doesn't it?

Dehumanise people and they will do anything, that's how they ran the concentration camps. It become the right thing to do. You cannot blame the person at the Job Centre. Governments know very well how to programme them. Look at all the experiments they did in the 60s and 70s.

Shows that the DWP are stupid. It's just ideological.

"Sir Ernest Ryder, senior president of tribunals, has condemned the DWP for forcing so many claimants to go to appeal when it is a 'no-brainer' that the DWP will lose.

According to Ryder, the percentage of appeals that the DWP lose has risen from 44% in 2007 to 61% now.

He told a barristers meeting that the quality of evidence put forward by the DWP was so bad it wouldn't be accepted in any other court.

In relation to PIP and ESA medical assessments, Ryder said that often the tribunal didn't "even know what the professional qualification or registration number was of the author" and that "in expert evidence terms in any other organisation you and I know of, it would be wholly inadmissible."

Ryder added that judges had done a spot check on outstanding cases and found that "60% of it is a no-brainer" that the DWP are going to lose.

The Tribunals Service are now considering either sending cases back to the DWP where there is no reasonable defence to the appeal or charging the DWP for defending such cases."

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-universal-credit-payment-delays-commons-defeat-government-dwp-work-pensions-benefits-a8056946.html

Universal credit rollout debate started now on parliament TV for anyone who is interested.

IDS isn't there. Not important enough for him to listen to Frank Field.

If Scotland and NI can have two weekly payments, why can't England and Wales?

Interesting that the Tories talk in generalisations and statistics, whereas the Labour MPs give stories of individuals to support what they are saying.
There seem to be quite a few Scottish MPs talking who do not appear to know that Scotland can give UC every two weeks.

The Tory MP for Brentwood and Ongar has just said that lots of people manage on just £500 a month.
I don't think he understands how little that is.

Theresa May will love this.

www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/sack_the_tories

I an=m sure they have foodbanks in that constituency.

The nearest one is Westminster Chapel.

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/jobseeker-left-tears-without-medication-13907506

"The local housing allowance for a family three-bedroom house in my constituency is £150 a week. There is a seven-day wait with no payment whatsoever, so a household can be £150 down to start with. The allowance is paid in arrears, but rent is paid in advance, as my hon. Friends have said, so a claimant can be £750 in arrears before they even start receiving universal credit. That is where all the reports of arrears are coming from and it is absolutely wrong. This is not about people on low pay not being able to manage; the system just does not take account of the realities of their lives."

From the debate on universal credit. Debt is built into the system. Anybody applying for universal credit from now will not have their first payment until after Christmas.

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/north-east-child-poverty-double-13916971

Gordon Brown giving a speech in Newcastle tonight.
Figures are quite scary. The government doesn't care about the north.

kittysjones.wordpress.com/2017/11/18/austerity-is-the-unfavourable-treatment-of-protected-social-groups-leading-to-unfair-disadvantage/

Somebody actually won against the system.

www.change.org/p/theresa-may-mp-cease-welfare-assistance-sanctions/u/22025935

We already know that anyone just coming on to UC will not get anything before Christmas but those who are already claiming but get paid weekly will also be hit.

Thousands of people on universal credit may not be paid over the festive season or may get a reduced payment, the BBC Money Box show has highlighted.

Those hit will be some of the 67,000 people who claim the benefit while working and who are paid weekly.

Universal credit: Households to miss out on benefits over festive season

Disgraceful, isn't it, GracesGran?

I find this quote from Darwin very apt.

He wasn't wrong was he. Apparently the people who are weekly paid in their jobs will have this happen every time there is a five week month.

Yes. Built into the system. I wonder what IDS thinks.

I was speaking to a family member who is desperately looking for work - after 6 years in one job he was made redundant - since has only been able to find a six month contriact which has since finished. He was saying that he is very worried about getting another job - particularly if it is a short term contract - as he is already very worried about maybe needing to go back on benefits when it finishes and the time lag before they kick in. Problem also as most of these jobs do not pay enough to allow for saving enough to tide them over until any benefit payments kick in.

The system also works against the self-employed. If you earn £12,000 a year self-employed you will receive, on average £2,500 less than someone who earns £12,000 in employment. I hasn't really shown up yet as most of the self-employed on UC are newly self-employed and do not have the 'earnings floor' in the first year. It will gather the others as time goes by and will then be another big problem, probably putting up unemployment, as low income self-employed (most in the first two or three years of business) cannot sustain themselves and become unemployed.

All the governments preaching about the flexibility of UC and that appears to be the one thing it isn't.

That's my son, Welshwife. He worked in the same job for over 20 years, and they made him redundant just before his 50th birthday.
He was off work for a good six months, then has a maternity supply, so he'll be out of work again in six months.
Very worrying when they have just taken out a large mortgage based on both of them working.

Can you believe this?
The official from the DWP in charge of the Universal Credit project has received an award for “a significant contribution to the art and science of project management”.