Universal Credits- a new nightmare

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dwp-disabled-people-benefits-legal-action-lose-government-work-pensions-department-frank-field-mp-a7886166.html

Over half of Londoners living in poverty are in working families.
20 years ago it was only 28%.
Is that the Tories running a country for all?
Is that work showing the way out of poverty?

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/09/more-than-half-of-londoners-in-poverty-are-in-working-families

Tories will continue the roll-out because it harms the poor.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/chaotic-roll-out-universal-credit-11315890

I see Jeremy Corbyn was complaining in PMQ about the cost of the Universal Credit helpline.
55p a minute! That's disgraceful. And I would have thought quite an easy concession for the government to make. But no answer from Theresa May.

On World at One Lynne Truss said a) people could go in person to a Job Centre ( because of course there is always a free bus) or b) could ask Helpline to ring them back ( because of course you never have to wait 20mins to talk to a real live person). Apparen5l6 not everyone has to pay 55p a minute ( so that’s all right then)

Since I updated my IPad I somehow keep typing numbers instead of letters

To night news.

Harrowing. All she is asking for is £53 pw and that’s for herself and son. Nothing since February

www.24housing.co.uk/news/corbyn-v-may-pmq-clash-over-uc-related-evictions/
For those who never watch PMQs.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/second-city-call-for-universal-credit-rethink/

Birmingham wants a rethink over the rollout.

This is Liz Truss on BBC today. She would not answer the question about 55p a minute, would not say it was easy to have freephone number.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2017/10/11/liz-truss-universal-credit_n_18236956.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-news

She had lots of chances.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/universal-credit-explained-by-the-people-on-the-frontline-of-it_uk_59d3731fe4b0655781556164

t.co/hcyQIAzncj

Liz Truss on Andrew Neil.
I love the comment which says this is the BBC I know and love.
The other comments are good, too.
I am surprised nobody on the panel picked up on the number of jobcentres being closed.

I have just been reading an article about the DWP wanting any pensioners receiving their pensions through a Post Office card account to set up a bank account to receive their pensions.
They are sending out letters to all pensioners getting their pensions this way, about 2 million of them.
They have set up an 0800 number for anyone who wants to access the helpline.

Why can't they do this for universal credit claimants?

Oh dj don’t be so naughty - you know exactly why!

How can I know why when Liz Truss doesn't?

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/disabled-man-denied-pip-benefits-11325688

He died before his appeal was overturned. It took six months.
More money for those who deserve it, I suppose.

Implementing Direct Payment of Housing Benefit: An Evaluation of Circle Housing's HB2U Pilot Project

Some of the research carried out by Sheffield Hallam Uni was quoted this morning on today. This is a fairly hefty piece but may be interesting to some.

gg yes I heard that piece. Did not make for happy listening. How can a government get it so wrong?

The suggestions made on the radio programme seemed very sensible. Professor Paul Hickman (Sheffield Hallam) suggested that:

1. They focus on alternative payment arrangements where people opt out and can choose to have their rent paid to the landlord.

2. Look at how quickly and therefore how large the amount of rent arrears has to be paid (rent arrears repayments are bigger under universal credit)

3. Increase benefit levels so they have a greater financial buffer. Relatively few have savings; if they have savings they are relatively small.

4. Think about supporting furnished tenancies so that people don't have to pay out for the basics (or go without)

5. More variability in terms of rent payments for social landlords.

One of the (many) things that really hacks off is that the Tories happy to lecture people about jobs being the way out of poverty etc etc, and then they make life difficult for those working on low income. Talking to a lone mum the other day. Nearest job she could get is about 30 miles away. She knows that her in-work benefits will be rolled into UC in a few months time. Really worrying for people.
I did laugh about your ideas for saving money Anniebach

Reading your electric meter every night - needs impressive calculator skills. Many school leavers would not know where to start on this one.

Freezing fresh veg - if your electricity is cut off because you can't afford to feed the meter then that could go awfully wrong...

Visiting fruit and veg farms and picking produce. The vast majority of people don't have fruit farms around the corner! There's only about one "pick your own" in the whole of NW Wales as far as I know and that's for soft fruit...

Growing veg , even in pots. An expensive hobby by the time you've bought the pot and the compost.

Sharing bath water . Most people take showers these days. And comment about the electricity meter applies.

Unexpended expenditure ? Oven needs repairing ? Cook on rings only until next pay day . Again - the poorest people are often on pre-payment meters which is the most expensive way to pay for energy. They are having to decide whether to put money in the meter or eat in many cases. Landlords have no obligation to insulate homes or to provide energy efficient heating systems. The Tories recently voted down a bill to make landlords provide homes that ate "fit for human habitation", let alone energy efficient.
I'm sure your methods work for you, but they certainly are not going to play well to the worried poor of today.

Jess - nails hit on heads. Good post.

What people like AB and the Tories do not get, understand. or have rarely experienced is a lack of capital. There must be more people with little or nothing to fall back on than there are those with a little or more capital and yet they still vote for the most punishing capitalist regime we have known - what would you say - perhaps since the Victorians but we are also now going back to their slums, the homelessness and the blaming of people who earn their poverty.

Even if you get into difficulties, if you have a fairly middle income family you will still not know what it is to be poor, with all your family equally poor and never having not been poor.

Apparently there is a helpline for those of high net worth.
It's a 03000 number, so much cheaper if not free to those who qualify. It's so they can order more stationery to pay their taxes, etc.

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/mum-and-new-baby-face-christmas-eviction-after-wca-nightmare/

Just when you thought the DWP couldn't get more stupid.

That link re mum and baby being evicted tells of a letter going missing in the post.
Recently, I have had a few letters I sent fail to arrive, or arrive very late.
I'm sure the DWP knows this happens but is happy to persecute people nevertheless.

Here is an account of the demands placed on DWP employees :
www.independent.co.uk/voices/universal-credit-dwp-worker-case-manager-benefits-system-government-food-banks-a7998196.html?g

I have been reading about a woman who went to the jobcentre for an interview and was told she was late for an appointment. She should have been there two hours earlier, even though the letter she had said the time she was expecting to be there.
She was told she had been sent a letter to tell her the change of time.
She was told she was being sanctioned.
She went outside in tears and rang a friend, who told her to go back inside and ask to see a supervisor, and ask the supervisor to show her a copy of the letter from her file.
There was no copy, so they could not prove it had been sent. Her benefits were reinstated.

The problem about the woman who had given birth and was sent a letter, and missed her appointment, therefore had her benefits stopped and was facing eviction, is that it is impossible to prove a negative.
How can you PROVE you haven't received a letter?

The letter was asking her to come for an interview 13 days after she had had a caesarean.
You are not supposed to ask a mother to come for work related interview within 14 days, so they were wrong anyway. However, until dpac became involved, nobody had noticed that.