DWP Sending Universal Credit into Meltdown.
DWP has Money for this….
Didn’t she do well?
Anybody with a sighting of any surviving Tory leadership figure talking about Universal Credit, from Johnson to Hunt, or one of their minions, please write in comments.
So far not a dicky bird….
Yet it continues to make it into the media.
This is a good article.
The DWP’s muddled maths is sending universal credit deeper into meltdown
The Independent.
By the estimable May Bulman Social Affairs Correspondent
It may come as a surprise, then, that nine years on, the government’s spending watchdog has revealed that fraud and error in the welfare bill are at their highest levels since 2006 – with much of the rise down to the introduction of universal credit.
To go into the numbers, the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed on Thursday that benefit claimants and pensioners lost out on £2bn that they were entitled last year to because officials short-changed them. Another £1.1bn was wrongly handed out to claimants because they failed to give the right details about their income – through the complex online portal system – on time.
What appears on the surface like a fairly bland report, filled with numbers and percentages, sheds light on the scale of devastation being inflicted on people across the country. Families are being denied the support they rely on to live on because of careless errors. People are finding their monthly allowance fluctuating from a liveable amount to near to nothing, with no prior notice, as the government tries to claw previous overpayments back.
And the real stories are out there. Last month, a seriously ill father-of-two told me he was living “hand to mouth” because the DWP was withdrawing more than £90 from his allowance each month – half of which was deducted for previous debts and historic overpayments.
…
A key feature of the sweeping reform was that payments would taper off as the recipient moved into work, not suddenly stop, thus avoiding a “cliff edge” that was said to “trap” people in unemployment. If jumping from £312 one month to £5.32 the next isn’t a cliff edge, I don’t know what is.
Also at play here is the DWP’s often arbitrarily punitive sanctions regime, which penalises benefit claimants who miss job centre appointments – with often little consideration of the many variables in people’s lives. Charities have told of cases where parents have had hundreds docked after having to miss meetings with job coaches due to childcare issues.
If universal credit was designed to help people manage their own finances and make the benefits system simpler, why are we are seeing vulnerable individuals and families being swung from pillar to post, more at the mercy of the state than ever?
More on the finances:
Record fraud and errors in DWP payments
Dominic Brady Public Finances.
28th of June.
Fraud and errors related to payments made by the Department for Work and Pensions have reached record highs and are set to grow due to universal credit.
Meanwhile….
Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
Universal Credit was always a harsh, uncaring system. But somehow the Tories managed to keep tthis relatively quiet. Now, as the numbers of people claiming UC increase, the usual Tory spin is unable to disguise the real extent of the problems.
Jeff Smith
June 28, 2019 at 7:22 pm
Why it’s high time for the UK government to face poverty facts
Ministers will have the chance to respond to UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston’s report into poverty in the UK today, the Western Europe researcher for NGO Human Rights Watch writes that social and human rights should be central to their considerations
It may only be a couple of hours away by plane, but the grand buildings of the United Nations in Geneva seem a world away from the grinding reality of poverty and deprivation in the UK. Far away from places like the once-prosperous market town of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire or the once-thriving shipyard town of Hull.
In my work for Human Rights Watch, we spoke with parents who were going hungry to ensure that their children had enough to eat, and teachers and staff at childrens’ centres telling us about kids arriving at school or nursery hungry. We spoke with mothers in foodbank queues who felt like they were failing their children.
https://www.bigissue.com/latest/kartik-raj-why-its-high-time-for-the-uk-government-to-face-poverty-facts/
ken
June 29, 2019 at 7:04 pm
The DWP’s muddled maths is sending universal credit deeper into meltdown
Last month, a seriously ill father-of-two told me he was living ‘hand to mouth’ because the DWP was withdrawing more than £90 from his allowance each month
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/universal-credit-underpayments-overpayments-claimants-benefits-national-audit-office-nao-iain-duncan-a8979006.html
Universal Credit delay: ‘I feared I’d lose my home’
A WOMAN who found herself with £1,200 in rent arrears had to wait seven weeks for her Universal Credit claim to be processed.
https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/17734420.universal-credit-delay-i-feared-id-lose-my-home/
Tory PM hopefuls must address the tragedy of Universal Credit
THERESA May was at the dispatch box today in one of her final Prime Minister’s Questions, and an issue was raised that is affecting millions in society who are suffering – often in silence – yet Mrs May had no words of comfort.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17732404.tory-pm-hopefuls-must-address-the-tragedy-of-universal-credit/
Thousands of North Wales families are living in poverty as impact of Universal Credit hits
A new welfare reform response team has been formed to deal with the new system
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/thousands-north-wales-families-living-16504571
The headlines are not going away neither are the people It also shows simply not paying someone doesn’t work but it all has to be seen in the context of its time such as the work programme,three year benefit sanctions that were later called counterproductive,calling something a reform doesn’t find them a job but went down well with Conservative voters at the time.David Cameron went on a rampage of failure from libya to Brexit backwards to A4e divided the country further which lead to a political farce which is still in place today.We certanly haven’t seen the end of this yet.
ken
June 29, 2019 at 5:34 am
Oh its ok as DWP are causing them.
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/28515
Thats right, bad when the claimant does it but good when its the government as its all inline with the twisted ideology and the notion humans can be responsible.
Well if the latter was true government wouldn’t be selling arms to the likes of Saudi Arabia, Israel, wouldn’t wait 31 years to sort the climate as it goes helter skelter year on year or allow UK business to fall into the hands of foreign interests only to see them up sticks, place a hole in tax revenue, cause its worker public financial debt all because brexit does not fit into their ideology.
Now maybe its just me but a person has to understand how a thing works and display competency in before assuming they can be responsible about it.
UC to put it bluntly is still very much an enigma which it appears even the government and DWP staff fall prey to or so they have declared when the system has is often the case has been found wanting shall we say.
The methodology of UC is without a shadow of a doubt geared towards the favor of government with people needing support just an after thought and this is no more so evident than the monthly period method welfare reform installed.
When government said to make work pay they werent wrong as no employers ever pays on the dotted line weekly,fortnightly or monthly meaning an over hang of monies owed will result in that persons benefit if single without disability or dependents having that amount tapered from the very first pound.
If the employer makes a mistake,awards holiday pay accrued, delayed sick pay, maternity pay, redundancy pay or any owed pay for anything after the last pay period (pay period where work is regular), DWP get to ride this amount and taper it despite such monies coming from a period prior to the period they will deduct it for.
To put this into perspective if a person earns enough in a single week (even a day), that single amount is used to taper an entire months benefits. If government actually wanted work to pay, claimants to benefit they would have worked the taper to account on a weekly basis which would naturally leave more in the pocket of the claimant trying to get a leg up
Example of how it currently works,
A person works 47.5 hours a week over a 4 week period at a rate of £13.00 an hour.
Before tax and NI £617.50, after tax and NI £487.82 in a single week. (£129.68 in total taxable revenue paid to government)
Entitled to £73.10 unemployment a week, £292.24 over 4 week period while claiming no other benefit.
£487.5 tapered equals £307.13.
So through work this claimant/employee is only £195.26 if it ends up being the only week they work in that benefit month.
How it could work to better support that particular claimant/employee.
We split all 4 weeks meaning DWP will only taper earnings relative to a specific week.
Using the same £487.5 we only taper £73.10 (the relative week)
Not only does £414.40 of pay remain in that persons pocket but they also receive 3 further payments of £73.10 ( £219.30) and thus totaling £633.70 for that 4 week period.
So £195.26 for that 4 week period or £633.70. You tell me which one better makes work pay and supports the claimant ?
Yes, being single with no disability while earning, earning a good hourly rate and or hours of paid work sees that person FINANCIALLY LOSE the most ALL BECAUSE they arent taking enough benefit yet will still be required under CC to continue to look for work at 35 hours a week, turn up on time, etc, etc or face sanction of at least a month but could be as much as 1 year despite receiving zero benefit for that benefit month.
Under the current system that person/claimant is actually better off SIGNING OFF UC for 2 weeks until the week in hand is paid and then sign back on.
If your receiving other benefits then the system becomes a welfare prison.
Only by insuring you have constant work can you avoid this penalty system and this when your working is what is meant by BETTER OFF IN WORK by insuring just benefits does not and hangs like chains which to many who cant do better than nat min is a terrible premise to be under.
Doug
June 29, 2019 at 10:37 am
Finally a Tory speaks out on benefits!
Andrew Coates
June 29, 2019 at 11:01 am
Reblogged this on Tory Britain!.
A6er
June 29, 2019 at 12:23 pm
[…] https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2019/06/28/dwp-sending-universal-credit-into-meltdown/ […]
DWP Sending Universal Credit into Meltdown. | Ipswich Unemployed Action. | Tory Britain!
June 29, 2019 at 12:33 pm
The problem with changing Tory attitudes to welfare reform, is that they don’t see that they are doing anything wrong. They admit to a few problems, but this was to be expected in such a major change. But in the end they just don’t see basically what is wrong with Universal Credit, or the changes to disability benefits.
Alan Turner
June 29, 2019 at 12:35 pm
It wasn’t so long ago that the newpapers and tv channels co-operated with the coalition government in demonising benefit claimants. For several years not only did the Tories want to reduce welfare support they actually gained more popularity by being seen to do harsh things to the unemployed, single-parents, and the sick and disabled. The public still in shock after the financial crash were looking for scapegoats and for the longest while benefit claimants fitted the bill with daily attacks on the front pages of rags like the Daily Mail and TV “entertainments” like Benefits Street and the awful Jeremy Kyle Show now a thing of the past.
This hostile climate enabled the Tories to introduce things like Universal Credit, Work Capability Testing, Two child limit on Working Tax Credits, Bedroom Tax and the rest not only with impunity but with public support and praise and the Tories rode that wave of hate all the way to where we are now.
Up shit creek without a paddle.
Djinn and Tonic
June 29, 2019 at 2:07 pm
And that’s where things will stay under Corbyn’s Labour. Look at the ratings, it’s unbelievable. Militant Tendency all over again. And just as unelectable.
Gerry B.
June 29, 2019 at 11:47 pm
UC is going no where while the left lose all sense of reasonable liberalism.
One way to best describe everyday life these days is oh what a mess what with the right clamping down on those that dont fit the mold while the left fights for rights and laws to call cauliflower racist, gender about what a person feels and a fear of or deep dislike a crime.
The hypocrisy of both more concerned with dethroning each other than the MAJORITY of public they are to suppose to support and act for in a democracy is just palpable.
Sadly while humerus it is coming at a cost to all our less fortunate members of public who in the UK are being eugenically culled under welfare.
One would think all the revelations now popping like fireworks would spell the end of the great welfare reform but nay the government gets another million and one chances to play for time to work out how to repackage one line of attack with a new one.
Its safe to say both right and left DO NOT want UC to go as how the hell could you present a better system of slavery and servitude among the lessors than dangling welfare in one hand while pulling the string in the other to permanently keep it from your grasp.
Coffee isnt going to serve itself, robots cant do all the menial tasks and capitalism cant work for the few and people cant get rich without the poor and poorly paid.
A capitalist, a communist even a socialist is just a self imposed title of a class of person looking to take advantage of you despite flatly denying it like they know what they are talking about anyway.
Doug
June 29, 2019 at 12:42 pm
Andrew Coates
June 29, 2019 at 2:33 pm
Andrew Coates
June 29, 2019 at 2:37 pm
Glasgow students visit UN to spread the word on UK child poverty
Ten-year-olds join special rapporteur to present damning report to human rights council
The 10-year-olds were in Geneva this week to chase up what the grownups were doing to tackle poverty in the UK. They had a date with Philip Alston – the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights who last November visited Avenue End school, which serves one of the poorest parts of Britain, as part of his investigation into the UK.
Children there had told him about hunger and the shame of poverty, about not being able to afford trainers, TV or food and about foodbanks. Alston kept them in mind when he drafted his damning report, which he presented on Friday to hundreds of diplomats from around the world. He told them the UK was facing “a national poverty crisis”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/28/glasgow-students-visit-un-to-spread-word-on-uk-child-poverty-report-human-rights
Theres no end to it.
ken
June 29, 2019 at 6:48 pm
How Britain’s welfare state has been taken over by shadowy tech consultants
Political choices made in the rush to ‘digital by default’ benefits, such as universal credit, have eroded people’s rights
The pioneering postwar British welfare state is rapidly being replaced by what we term a “digital welfare state”.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/27/britain-welfare-state-shadowy-tech-consultants-universal-credit
ken
June 29, 2019 at 7:20 pm
Soon there will be no unemployment, soon there will be no disabled. The Tories have cured disability & unemployment in one easy benefit called Universal Credit. Soon there will be no need for the DWP, soon there will be no need for the NHS & GPs. Sounds like fencing money through the Disability Strategy called money laundering. Soon the Tories won’t need lawyers at £2,000 an hour. Soon the Tories will have the denial factory back on track. Soon there will be 200,000 DWP Universal Credit related deaths.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
June 29, 2019 at 7:47 pm
Still nothing much from Corbyn on Universal Credit. Just the usual sound of silence. No wonder they have lost 10,000 members. If Labour spent less time arguing about party regulations, and more time opposing the hardship and suffering caused by Universal Credit, it would be a good thing. After all, they are halfway responsible for it.
John Taylor
June 29, 2019 at 11:43 pm
Corbyn is a figurehead and the decisions about universal credit and such things are made by puppet masters behind the scenes. He can’t be definitive because he doesn’t really know yet what Labour’s position is.
Lemmy
June 30, 2019 at 8:08 am
‘I’ve applied for 500 jobs since November so I don’t have to live on Universal Credit’
‘As a 63-year-old man it seems I am not as employable as others’
“The odds are stacked against me. When I’m applying for jobs with big national companies there are pictures of staff smiling on their websites, they are never people my age. They are youngsters and people no older than 40.
“A lot of the big firms also have rules which mean if you apply and don’t get the job you can’t then apply again for at least 12 months.
“Even my work coach said I am flogging a dead horse, so to speak.”
Mr Speirs is currently working part time for a charity in Melton. As a result of the hours he works, the amount of Universal Credit he receives alters.
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/universal-credit-claimant-500-jobs-3030374
ken
June 30, 2019 at 7:38 am
As it says in the article ‘there is no issue’ with his claim. So nothing to see here, move along now. This is exactly the DWP attitude to Universal Credit. He is working, no matter how low the hours, or how poor the conditions. They totally ignore the hardship and the realities of the situation. Ideology in action.
Jeff Smith
June 30, 2019 at 11:32 am
I must have applied for about the same, I am in my md 30s, the only thing I have managed to get is some voluntary, I am with two organistations, after finishing the work and health programme, I am out the enemy camp, so when I start back at my English those still on the work and health programme will be told two places to get further help by me,.
myfinalusername
July 3, 2019 at 7:06 pm
Jo Swinson for Liberal Democrat leader! Go on Jo! Give it some wellie girl!
Vince
June 30, 2019 at 8:10 am
Swinson is so fake and plastic they’ll probably recycle her after her death.
Green Piece
June 30, 2019 at 9:25 am
And the Lib Dems would do anything, say anything, kiss anything to get another taste of power.
Dave Blunt
June 30, 2019 at 11:12 am
If Julia Goldsworthy was prepared to give me a blowjob, I would be prepared to vote LibDem.
Stiffy McVicar
July 1, 2019 at 4:56 pm
Girocheques were made from re-cycled egg cartons so similarly Jo Swinson could be re-cycled into those plastic wallets for the ‘My Work Plan’ booklets.
Greeny
July 2, 2019 at 10:47 am
..
Car Crash Interviews
July 3, 2019 at 12:44 pm
Never forget what’s happening here. People are being forced off benefits and into work.
Colin Gately
June 30, 2019 at 3:46 pm
Indeed! The State is forcing it’s own citizens to work for a living.
Rupert & Penelope
June 30, 2019 at 3:54 pm
“… for a living…”
See. That’s the thing. The government is driving people into work that does not provide them with a living and that’s what’s new. The greatest sector of society where grinding poverty is growing like a cancer is in-work poverty, i.e., people who have some work, are counted as being in work, and yet end up at the end of every week without enough money to adequately nourish and support themselves. Work is no longer the best way, or even a way, out of poverty for millions of impoverished Britons and the people who engineered this mess will, eventually, pay a heavy political price from the misery and suffering they have created.
Djinn and Tonic
July 1, 2019 at 7:20 am
Surely they can’t get away with this ?
John Greenway
July 1, 2019 at 4:04 pm
I’ll tell you what though. If the State are expecting its citizens to go to work and earn their own money they are going to have to bloody great fight on their hands. Forcing people to work to support themselves whether they want to or not is just not on.
Toxteth Heath
July 1, 2019 at 7:36 pm
“and the people who engineered this mess will, eventually, pay a heavy political price from the misery and suffering they have created.” Yet Jo Swinson who voted for each and every one of the late Iain Duncan Smith’s ‘welfare reforms’ is making a bid to become Prime Minister. She must think that, we, the voting public have the memory of a goldfish.
The Steins
July 1, 2019 at 7:42 pm
The little turd was on the wireless today trying to justify her support of these policies, the policies that have brought a tide of misery, starvation, homelessness, suicide and death. She had the cheek to say that it was the ‘right thing to do’.
Marjolein R
July 1, 2019 at 7:47 pm
Instead of making ‘clever’ remarks, which quite obviously stem from ignorance and innate bias, why don’t you try reading a few of the vast number of articles, reports and statistics that are currently available on this topic. Then, perhaps, you won’t look like a smug, self-satisfied idiot or, alternatively, you could go back to ‘reading’ tabloid newspapers which tell you how to think.
Belinda Harris
July 2, 2019 at 10:24 pm
UK’s interfaith food banks are filling welfare gaps
As poverty levels in the UK increase many of those affected are turning to food banks run by churches and mosques to get by. Damaging welfare cuts by the government are exacerbating an already dire situation.
https://www.dw.com/en/uks-interfaith-food-banks-are-filling-welfare-gaps/a-49389575
ken
June 30, 2019 at 5:19 pm
And now Universal Credit stands over the unemployed like Castle Doom, black and forbidding.
Darren Hooper
June 30, 2019 at 10:14 pm
Well it was invented and implemented by the Dark Lord Sauron, so what can you expect.
Gandalf the Red, White and Blue
July 1, 2019 at 7:14 am
One benefit to rule them all, one benefit to find them, One benefit to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Sauron of the Ainur
July 1, 2019 at 9:55 am
Autistic woman facing homelessness after waiting months for benefits appeal
Vulnerable woman thinks home may be repossessed as she waits to fight decision
An autistic woman is facing the prospect of losing her house and ending up on the streets after waiting months to fight a decision to strip her of benefits.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/autistic-woman-facing-homelessness-after-16504263
ken
July 2, 2019 at 9:41 am
I don’t see those mini jobs working the expectations are to demanding from employers regarding previous experience to begin.The problem was much the same when the Jobcentre had a push towards volunteering several years ago,going into a charity shop a mountain of applications were already on the desk,they were clearly telling everyone to do the same thing.
A minimum of 12 months experience in a similar role with quality cleaning and attention to detail, you will undertake regular routine cleaning to high standards working from a planned schedule as part of a 2 person team. IT literate (use of tablet and smart phone apps), customer focused and good communication skills along with ability to work without supervision and meet deadlines.
Company vehicle, uniform and training provided.
Candidates need to be 21+ (insurance purposes) with full UK Driving Licence (max 6 points)
Another
The Cleaning Operative will have:
Previous experience working in a cleaning environment.
Another
If you have any cleaning experience we would love to hear from you!
As well as other demands/expectations.
Being told at the Jobcentre “Cleaner bang your in” but that wasn’t the case or does it look to be that easily at any point.Their clearly not in touch with employer demands able any form of assistance to unemployment problems or to the unemployed themselves.The poor figures on the Health and Work programme seem to back this up also and are unable to tackle the hard problems of unemployment.
ken
July 1, 2019 at 7:41 am
One thing I do notice is that every other job asks for a “clean driving license”, even jobs where you wouldn’t think they were necessary, e.g., Store Colleague at Tesco. Presumably this means that the job requires the person to work at different locations, hard to reach locations, or locations out of hours. As for cleaning jobs surely any able-bodied person ought to be able to do those without much experience of training? Most of them require your own transport these days because you have to flit from place to place and only get paid of course for the time you spend on the job with nothing usually for your time on the road.
Waiting for Godot
July 1, 2019 at 10:01 am
It’s the new world of zero-hours cheap labour. Maximum cost for the workers, maximum flexibility for the employers. Where people wait by the phone, their own transport at the ready.
Able to rush swiftly into work, as and when required.
Jeff Smith
July 1, 2019 at 2:20 pm
The requirement for a Driving Licence is simply to weed out the chavs. You don’t need a Driving Licence to sit on your butt in an office all day. And highly competitive jobs such as trainee clincal psychologist all demand a Driving Licence. It stops the ‘lower orders’ from apply. It takes $bucks and access to a car to obtain a Driving Licence. And the younger you are and the poorer the background, non-driver parents/relatives/friends the less likely you are to have one. Again, the requirement for a Driving Licence impedes the chavs from getting a foot on the ladder to get on in life…
7 Tonne Driver
July 1, 2019 at 3:09 pm
“… weed out the chavs…”
Who do you reckon are doing cleaning jobs and working at Tesco then, sport?
Oxbridge alumni with post-grad degrees?
Have a word with yourself for goodness sake.
Luther Van Dross
July 1, 2019 at 4:53 pm
maximum flexibility for the employers. Where people wait by the phone, their own transport at the ready.
Its been like that with Agencies’ for a number of years.In another area around twenty years ago they always sought people with their own transport “at last someone with a car” they even expected those with transport to take others to the job site.they should’t have been attempting to do that.It was rush to work when required at the time on a call.
ken
July 2, 2019 at 1:55 am
Steer clear of an agency called The Best Connection. If you register with these bastards you’ll get pimped out on a casual basis to goodness knows who and expected to commute long distances. When I was with them I regularly used to get sent all over the place, sometimes with a 30 mile commute, for hard minimum wage work with uncertain hours: you only found out how many hours of work you were going to get when you got there and, depending on how much labour they had on the day, might only work for a few hours or up to twelve hours.
Basically after registering with The Best Connection you become like an indentured slave.
I had all sorts of problems getting them to pay me sometimes, or get them to pay me on time, and was treated like shit for several months until I found another job myself and managed to escape from their clutches. My advice to anybody reading these words is to steer clear and warn others of the dangers posed by unscrupulous outfits like The Best Connection.
And it’s not just me.
https://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews171293.html
Dog's Body
July 2, 2019 at 7:07 am
Yeah, similar experience with these bastards. Kept saying to us “your money will be in the bank by Christmas”. They didn’t say which Chrismas though. Got a re-possesion order from the landlord (housing association) and almost ended up homeless. If it weren’t for the charity of friends and family I would be out on the street. That’s what happens when you try to ‘do the right thing’. What the whole experience taught me is If you need your income to pay for the roof over your head you are best to stay put on benefits. With employers agencies you are never sure if you are going to get paid. So to hell with doing the right thing. There are no prizes for doing the right thing. Better to look after your own best interests even if that means sitting on the dole.
It's a Wonderful Life
July 2, 2019 at 7:52 am
Almost one in six vacant UK jobs require the applicant to have a driving licence – even though they don’t require driving
Of the 16,100 situations vacant, five per cent stipulated that applicants must have their own vehicle or at least the ability to drive
‘This country relies on millions of people whose work patterns span all hours of the day and night and rarely, if ever, involve sitting at a desk or shop counter.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-3547919/Almost-one-six-UK-jobs-adverts-require-people-able-drive.html
I think it possibly could be more then that with many ads’ reading between the lines.There are a number that specify do you live in the same town also lately I’ve noticed.Its widely seen as a no nonsence form of ID also.
ken
July 3, 2019 at 2:02 pm
Universal Credit is no credit to anyone.
Harry Carter
July 1, 2019 at 3:11 pm
Andrew Coates
July 1, 2019 at 4:22 pm
If someone has three mini jobs possibly four in a day in a perfect world thats 3-4 times realtime information that needs to be imput realtime.It does look as if the more someone manages to do theres more to go wrong and resolving that looks problamatic being told to contact by the journal isn’t satisfactory to not being paid.
Better to find a full time job and sign off rather then get involved in that charade.
ken
July 1, 2019 at 5:34 pm
When the work coach follows the Universal Credit rules which are each claimant has to work 36 hours a day knowing full well there are only 24 hours in a day it makes the errors stack up. Some how the DWP & Universal Credit have a different clock than the rest of the world. If you don’t work 36 hours a day you will be sanctioned, which again causes errors in the system of ATOS IT because the DWP have not sorted out their own IT System just like the Civil Service that still runs its IT off of ATOS IT. Perhaps it is ATOS causing all these errors at the DWP with Universal Credit. Anyway how is the ATOS contract going Tories !!!!
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
July 1, 2019 at 6:09 pm
My research leads me to the concluion that tThe Jobcentre uses something called ‘Jobcentre sidereal time’, mate 😉 You need to be able to bend the space-time continuim to fulfil your work search commitements 😉 I have published a recent research paper on the subject: “The space-time continuim, sidereal time and the impossibilty to escape from the Job Centre work search requirement Black Hole and the inevitiability of sanctions. By the way, Isn’t the Universe wondrous? 😀
Professor Brian Cox
July 1, 2019 at 7:56 pm
The Planets series on the BBC was pretty good, Brian. Your Mancunian accent is still annoying though.
Professor Stephen Hawking (deceased)
July 2, 2019 at 4:28 pm
The journal I tried as an example by simply turning off cookies on the journal page.Its dead without permission.
https://www.universal-credit.service.gov.uk/cookiepolicy/cookiecheck
The cookies in your browser are turned off. Turn on cookies to use the Universal Credit service.
Yet on the bar above it stated.
We have placed cookies on your computer or other device to help make this website better. You can change your cookies settings at any time and can find out about cookies here. If you continue using this site we will assume you accept these cookies.
There were no cookies placed.
Its digital by default with your permission
ken
July 3, 2019 at 10:53 am
I see lots of employers wanting loads of bipolar people because you can trust they are fantastic workers & great to have around the work place. Same as suicide people are fantastic in the work place. Mental Health seems not to be an illness but an employment figure even if one does not claim Universal Credit.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
July 1, 2019 at 5:22 pm
The Highland fling contiues.
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey MP keeps pressure on Westminster to settle Universal Credit bill with Highland Council
The local authority was, by last October, out of pocket to the tune of £2.5 million due to Universal Credit.
According to council reports, more than £640,000 of these costs were incurred because of the added time and effort it now takes to administer processes around the welfare scheme.
https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/mp-keeps-pressure-on-westminster-to-settle-universal-credit-bill-179914/
ken
July 1, 2019 at 5:37 pm
Education and Work And Pensions Committees together investigate school holiday poverty
On Wednesday 3 July 2019 the Work and Pensions Committee and Education Committee will meet together in Parliament to investigate the problems – including hunger – of School holiday poverty,
https://www.fenews.co.uk/press-releases/31521-education-and-work-and-pensions-committees-together-investigate-school-holiday-poverty
ken
July 2, 2019 at 9:36 am
Presumably that will make an interesting discussion, after the one on benefits sexwork, the one on homelessness, and the one on survival crime. Oh, and I forgot, the one on the disability benefit cuts.
The trouble is its no good the Work & Pensions Committee sitting there having these pious discussions, if nothing is going to happen, and the government just ignore the conclusions.
Jeff Smith
July 2, 2019 at 11:03 am
Been trying to do a job-search in the library this morning. But gave up in frustration! You know why that goddamned EU cookie notice was popping up on EVERY frigging page. Like a virus – because that it what it is. What dumb-fuck Eurocrat thought it was a good idea to put a stupid roadblock on every webpage to remind web users that every website uses a technology that has been around for decades, since the very first web browser walked the Earth. It ruins completetely the user XPerience.
Seriously, hope that BoJo becomes Prime Minister and takes us to Hell out of the dictatorial EU and their Goddamned cookie notice. Anything, just anything to see the back of the cookie notice.
Frustrated Jobseeker
July 2, 2019 at 10:24 am
Andrew Coates
July 2, 2019 at 4:35 pm
Oh God ! The Eton Mess.
Jeff Smith
July 2, 2019 at 6:09 pm
That’s not Boris in the top hat. Surely, it’s Jacob Rees-Mogg?
sibrydionmawr
July 4, 2019 at 10:57 am
Ah! Jacob Rees-Mogg. The twat who visited a food bank and found it “uplifting” because the “government couldn’t do everything”. Although it can cut tax for business and for the wealthiest higher rate tax payers while refusing to allocate funds sufficient to give the poor enough financial support to house and feed themselves adequately. Basically Robin Hood in reverse. What a waste of protoplasm that wretched Rees-Mogg is. I wonder what job Boris Johnson will give this twat in his cabinet? Work and Pensions perhaps? The mind boggles.
Heart of Oak
July 4, 2019 at 11:27 am
Say what you like about the Tories, Universal Credit is under attack from every side, but they are still not moving an inch towards doing anything about it.
Alan Turner
July 2, 2019 at 11:10 am
MPs demand Universal Credit advances are written off as grants and should not be repayable
‘Because of the benefit freeze, the basic amount people have to live on is not enough’
People who opt to get some or all of their Universal Credit in advance of its due date should NOT have to pay it back, MPs have urged the Government.
The upfront payout of the benefit should be treated as a grant rather than a debt, they told the DWP.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/universal-credit-advance-payments-blamed-16521182
ken
July 2, 2019 at 6:35 pm
Reminds me of the last days of Hitler in his bunker.
Reinhart
July 4, 2019 at 11:34 am
Dinnae tell me aboot they bastards in London. We hae fowk up ‘ere making yin haggis lest fur a fortnight.
Angus Campbell
July 2, 2019 at 11:14 am
Thare is na mair truth in Universal Credit than th’ bones o’ a deid an aberdonian`s burd that haes leid in th’ glen fur a munth past.
The hail wretched system is aboot forcing fowk intae th’ world o’ zero-hours wirk. ‘n’ shuid pity even th’ department o’ so-called Work & Pensions.
Hamish McDougall
July 2, 2019 at 11:30 am
Just when you thought the present chaos could not get worse:
Amber Rudd hits back at ‘unworkable’ plan to fold DWP from Boris Johnson camp
Allies of the Tory party frontrunner are understood to have said he could halve the cabinet
Amber Rudd has hit back at the suggestion that Boris Johnson would scrap the Department for Work and Pension as part of a plan to halve the cabinet.
The Work and Pensions Secretary described a plan to fold the department in the Treasury, which was reported in the Telegraph, as “unworkable”.
The paper reported that allies of Mr Johnson are urging him to shrink the size of the Cabinet by merging Government departments.
Ms Rudd, who is supporting Mr Hunt, rebutted the suggestion, tweeting: “Fold DWP? We’re a delivery Department giving tailored support to people trying to get into work, with brilliant work coaches at 600+ sites.
“80,000 staff and £100bn in pension payments across the world. Can’t imagine Boris Johnson supports this unworkable ‘plan’ by “allies”.”
“Tory former de facto deputy prime minister Damian Green, a backer of Mr Johnson’s campaign, dismissed the report, telling BBC Two’s Newsnight: “I just find that quite an extraordinary proposition.”
A campaign source dismissed the plan telling PA: “This is absolute nonsense.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/amber-rudd-hits-back-boris-17327642?fbclid=IwAR0zjLpHh63JytwxO1TS31q7EssZcc661acABAqNBSBeckajBcbIffU8m90
Andrew Coates
July 2, 2019 at 5:03 pm
Truly nuts. The Depaertment of Work and Pensions manages the biggest single budget of government and the Treasury is the department that prevents the DWP from having the funds to look after people adequately. Given the choice the Treasury would be happy to let needy people starve en masse. Mind you I doubt Boris will last long enough to do much harm to be honest. My bet is on a general election before Christmas.
Jim
July 3, 2019 at 7:34 am
Just goes to show like too many claimants not knowing the laws to safely navigate welfare, Amber Rudd herself does not know what her department does.
The Unemployed and looking for work ONLY make up 4.4% of the total amount of people claiming one or more benefits.
This Freudian slip which she has carefully obfuscated is the 2.86 million (14.3%) in work claimants reliant on tax credits who make up 71% of all tax credit claimants.
You also have to wonder how many of this figure are a part of the 3,758,355 claiming housing benefit.
Technically Boris and Rudd aside its a clear cut case the systemic problem for both public and public finance alike is in work claimants not being paid a high enough wage as well as given enough hours proportionately.
By today’s standards a single person bottom line needs a tax allowance of £17’500 yearly but to make that achievable we have to up the hourly rate of pay the less the employer needs them and or using a two tier system to award overtime pay rates for employees working over 20 and 30 hours.
Struggle as business does its high time they took on the responsibility for public finance as after all they are the swing door of all revenue.
Doug
July 8, 2019 at 10:30 am
They need a good folding if you ask me.
Tom Carver
July 2, 2019 at 6:08 pm
Rise in number of homeless people blamed on Universal Credit and welfare system
A spokesperson from the DWP insisted people threatened with homelessness could seek advice from their local job centre
Universal Credit is contributing to a rise in homelessness because landlords are choosing to quit the market and sell their properties rather than trust claimants to pay their rent on time, a report has suggested.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/rise-number-homeless-people-blamed-16520948
You’ll never walk alone could be written because of Universal Credit.
ken
July 2, 2019 at 6:30 pm
Jobcentres no longer manage universal credit or offer advice to people on it who have problems. All changes and queries have to be directed to remote staff using the infamous Journal, or, sometimes, by telephone. Jobcentres only police the work search of people facing conditionality and offer crap advice about getting a job; other than that interaction between UC claimants and the DWP is supposed to happen over the internet, remotely.
Jim
July 3, 2019 at 7:39 am
“ When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be. The Force runs strong in your family. Pass on what you have learned.” — Yoda
True Force
July 2, 2019 at 7:09 pm
May the force be with you.
Police Constable Pan Am
July 4, 2019 at 11:29 am