Merseyside Job Centre has been covered in graffiti protesting against the government’s controversial Universal Credit benefit policy (August 2019)
A lot of social security legislation and the bodies administering it seem to end up in legal cases.
From the private chancers running parts of the welfare state there is Capita.
Capita seeks to reverse ‘reputational damage’ after death of claimant
BBC.
Benefit-assessment company Capita is going to court to try to reverse the “reputational damage” it says it suffered after a claimant died.
Victoria Smith died months after her personal independence payments were stopped following a Capita assessment.
The outsourcing company was ordered to pay £10,000 in damages over its handling of her disability claim.
It was found to have made incorrect statements but wants the county court verdict set aside and the case reheard.
The company conducts health assessments for personal independence payments (PIP), the main disability benefit, on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.
While the decision over whether someone receives the benefit is made by a DWP official, Capita’s assessment of how a person’s disability affects their life is a crucial part of the process.
Now there is this:
Universal Credit bosses face new legal battle over ‘unfair’ payments in ‘flawed and illogical policy’
Claimants threaten legal proceedings because they are being short-changed.
Birmingham Live.
Universal Credit bosses are facing another legal battle over the amount some claimants are paid.
The Government is being taken to court for a third time over the way disabled people are treated when moved on to the new benefit.
Those who previously received Severe Disability Premium (SDP) and Enhanced Disability Premium (EDP) say they’ve lost out since being forced to go on to Universal Credit instead.
Two men, who are only identified as TP and AR, have already won two legal challenges against the DWP over the issue.
The High Court ruled the way claimants were treated was unlawful discrimination on both occasions.
The pair have now written again to Amber Rudd, Secretary of State of Work and Pensions, after she said the level of payments for severely disabled individuals who have moved onto UC will be set at £120 for single claimants.
They say this is unfair and does not reflect the money they have actually lost, which is about £180 per month.
TP and AR argue that “the Universal Credit migration arrangements announced on 22 July 2019 are still unlawful as they short-change individuals who previously received the Severe Disability Premium and Enhanced Disability Premium and moved onto Universal Credit before 16 January 2019 when the SDP Gateway Regulations came into force.”
The regulations meant that anyone on Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or Housing Benefit will not be forced on to Universal Credit if they also get the Severe Disability Premium.
But now TP and AR say those who moved across before those rules came into effect will receive £50 less a month than those who no longer face being moved on the new benefit.
TP and AR have asked the DWP how the £120 figure was reached and argue that the full £180 per month shortfall should be given, otherwise the regulations will still be unlawful discrimination.
They also ask why the new regulations provide discretionary hardship payments for individuals who are subject to “managed migration” onto UC but not for those who have already had to move onto the benefit because their circumstances changed.
They argue that this is a further difference in treatment between the two groups.
The Government has been given a deadline of August 15, 2019, to reply to the letter, or the men say they will launch further legal proceedings.
Of course the law gets involved for simpler reasons:
Woman ‘unable to survive’ on £44 a month Universal Credit shoplifts from Primark
Mirror.
Universal Credit claimant Lisa Payne draped £117 worth of jeans over her arm and walked out of the Primark in Grimsby.
A woman left with just £44 a month on Universal Credit was caught stealing nine pairs of jeans from Primark, a court heard.
Lisa Payne “simply couldn’t survive with £44” over an entire month, her solicitor claimed.
The court heard Payne stole £117 worth of jeans from a Primark at the Freshney Place shopping centre in Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
The 46-year-old draped the pairs of jeans – costing £13 each – over her arm and walked out of the shop, but she failed to elude security officers, GrimsbyLive reported.
A guard followed her out of the store and the jeans were recovered during the theft on May 23.
Amber Rudd is hot on the job of making things better:
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Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
The Conservative party are behaving like the former East Germany.The country’s international standing is in tatters’ and we’re heading for political suicide.They’ve taken out economic failure out on everyone but themselves including the EU but only have themselves to blame.The EU have shown where there is unity there is strength and are rightly refusing to be moved by conservative bluster.
Its only a matter of time before the inevitable threats begin to emerge once more.Those on benefits the disabled and the poor will be the first once more to suffer.
ken
August 7, 2019 at 1:42 pm
Just had message to say ive failed the work assessment..I have angina ..melagia paresthia..irritable bowel syndrome…scoliosis ..protruding discs in back ..take morphine and tramadol 10 times a day for pain that’s on top of all the other meds I take for other stuff .. can’t get out of bed most mornings.. can’t sit or stand for to long .. this system is horrible so unfair 😦
Alison B
August 7, 2019 at 2:14 pm
Perhaps with these legal cases, more people will wake up to the true reality of Universal Credit. Not only is it a harsh and unfair system, designed to be difficult for the claimant. It is a seriously flawed system as well.
Jeff Smith
August 7, 2019 at 2:40 pm
Amber there’s nothing very good about working your arse off all day,
Particularly when that arse has to work for minimum pay,
It’s no good sitting in Caxton House going on about Universal Credit,
The whole thing is a disaster and everyone has said it,
No-one believes your bullshit Amber,
Or your motivational quotes on Twitter,
For the Universal Credit experience is universally strict and bitter.
DWP Poet
August 7, 2019 at 2:58 pm
Stakhanovite
“The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) through Universal Credit is fast becoming the UK’s biggest debt collection agency.
“Rules allow the DWP to deduct up to 40 per cent directly from someone’s Universal Credit to pay for debts.
https://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/people/nearly-8-million-taken-out-in-short-term-loans-in-calderdale-over-the-last-three-years-figures-reveal-1-9916288
ken
August 7, 2019 at 6:29 pm
@DWP Poet . Great ! You should set that to music and put it up on Youtube.
James
August 7, 2019 at 9:19 pm
These are the people doing the legal case:
Andrew Coates
August 7, 2019 at 3:40 pm
Universal Credit: Charity Food Banks Forced to Compensate for Failing Benefits System
Claire was referred to a charity food bank by her housing advice officer, who realised she wasn’t coping. She was falling behind on her rent and struggling to afford meals for her family. “The food bank was my only other option to get food for my kids and myself,” she says.
Jobcentre staff had previously offered Claire a food bank voucher, but that meant catching a bus from her village to their office; without enough for a loaf of bread or a pint of milk, a bus ticket was out of the question.
Claire is a single mother of four children who split from her partner last year after suffering domestic violence. A subsequent breakdown meant she had to leave her job and claim Employment Support Allowance (ESA)
https://novaramedia.com/2019/08/07/universal-credit-charity-food-banks-forced-to-compensate-for-failing-benefits-system/
ken
August 7, 2019 at 6:23 pm
UC is a joke, I am getting £30 per week less than what I was getting on my jsa (because of my disability)
CAB have given me advised
myfinalusername
August 7, 2019 at 6:26 pm
@myfinalusername – Did you find their advice any use ?
Dan
August 7, 2019 at 9:08 pm
Must admit I saw a guy talking to them at my Jobcentre couple of weeks ago. On Universal Credit, not paid full amount for second month running. They listened well enough, but all the advice he got was to go his local council and try and get a one-off payment for his rent costs ??
Jack
August 9, 2019 at 3:22 pm
The CRB are looking into for me (me and my Dad must have been on the phone for a hour talking to a guy who was veyr helpful) my mum was out. I been told the money I lost from December 2018 to present I can’t get back.
I think it is something to do with the level of pip whilst claiming job seekers, being moved across to uc.
I am still lucky to live at home with my parents, but it was the way I was moved across from one to another and we were unware I will be worst off.
myfinalusername
August 10, 2019 at 7:59 pm
Universal Credit: Job Centre covered in anti-Universal Credit graffiti!
I wouldn’t go the far yet but people are sounding more and more upset.Hardly all in this togeter but we are as being unemployed.people have the right to work not be discriminated against or singled out for mistreatment because of age nationality economic status disability or other percieved difference.
Surge in EU citizens unfairly refused access to universal credit
‘Hostile environment’ of benefits system leads EU nationals to destitution
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/05/surge-in-eu-citizens-unfairly-refused-access-to-universal-credit
I’ve stood back and admired thier skills’ determination and their sucess something that could be learned from here.
ken
August 7, 2019 at 6:55 pm
I know Andrew said this, and everyone has said this, but I just wish that the Labour Party would make some sort of targeted action against Universal Credit. This has gone beyond belief now that they are still not doing anything.
The Tories are going to get this all sorted with the remaining people on it. Then it’s going to be like trying to get millions of people back out of jail.
Tom Sutton
August 7, 2019 at 9:16 pm
I agree and I bet lots of other people do as well.
Andrew Coates
August 8, 2019 at 10:54 am
It’s no good Labour attacking Universal Credit without spelling out what they would do about it if they had the power. Should it be scrapped? Should things be rolled back to the old system? Can Universal Credit be changed to make it fit for purpose and if so how? It’s a piece of piss for Corbyn to say that UC is a disaster and responsible for driving people to food banks. Yes, but we all know that. What we want to know is what the hell Labour would do about this dire and dismal situation if it ever got back into power. We want solutions not only mud-slinging.
Ro
August 8, 2019 at 11:12 am
@Ro, Right on ! Labour could be putting forward alternatives to Universal Credit right now. Corbyn could be speaking out against it, and showing the public Labour’s alternative social security system. But Labour haven’t bothered to work anything out in detail, as you say. So they have got nothing to offer as a realistic replacement for Universal Credit. I wonder what will be the Labour Party reaction when everyone is finally transferred to Universal Credit ? I think this is going to be the elephant in the room, and Labour are just going to ignore it.
Dave
August 9, 2019 at 2:08 pm
Hi, I’m Jeremy Corbyn and I approve this message.
Jeremy Corbyn
August 8, 2019 at 8:15 am
Jeremy, you know you’re not supposed to do anything like this without speaking to Seamus and Momentum first.
Now stop it or you won’t get any more Freddos for a week.
Sam
August 8, 2019 at 11:49 am
Food bank campaigners warn Universal Credit strain is leaving children hungry
The new system, which was introduced in November, wraps six benefits into one.
But it involves a five-week wait before the first payment, and the council has estimated that thousands will be worse off under the new system after it has been fully implemented.
http://camdennewjournal.com/article/food-bank-campaigners-warn-universal-credit-strain-is-leaving-children-hungry
ken
August 8, 2019 at 9:33 pm
Yes as previously said I work in a school and within 2 weeks of UC going live here we had referred 3 families to foodbank
katrehman
August 9, 2019 at 6:29 pm
Guido Fawkes
August 8, 2019 at 3:15 pm
Under the mental health act.
ken
August 8, 2019 at 7:13 pm
Looks like communism to me ….
Fred Harper
August 9, 2019 at 10:19 am
It is always the same when these types gain power. The mass round-ups and executions begin.
Boshie Vik
August 9, 2019 at 3:21 pm
It looks like more then something else to me.
The Brexit Short: How Hedge Funds Used Private Polls to Make Millions
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-25/brexit-big-short-how-pollsters-helped-hedge-funds-beat-the-crash
ken
August 11, 2019 at 3:33 pm
POWER TO THE PEOPLE! COME THE REVOLUTION YOU’LL BE UP AGAINST THE WALL!
Wolfie Smith of the Tooting Popular Front
August 9, 2019 at 4:07 pm
Anger over Unum sponsorship of ‘Superhero’ triathlon event
But Unum spent years pushing reforms that have been closely linked to the deaths of many claimants of employment and support allowance (ESA) and to harming the physical and mental health of many others.
Disabled researchers and activists have previously shown how Unum spent years undermining the social security system in order to boost the market for its own income protection insurance policies.
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/anger-over-unum-sponsorship-of-superhero-triathlon-event/
ken
August 8, 2019 at 9:32 pm
Unum doing the sponsorship ? Ironic surely ?
Alan Turner
August 9, 2019 at 10:09 am
Like putting King Herod in charge of childcare or appointing Pritti Patel to be Home Secretary for example?
Kinky
August 9, 2019 at 3:22 pm
Amazing there are still no widespread public protests about Universal Credit. Already it seems to have been accepted by the mass of voters. Remember the Poll Tax ? There was massive protesting until the Tories had to abandon it. Somehow it caught the public imagination, that the Poll Tax was unfair and they should do something about it. And when you think about it, as Tom Sutton says, why should people be left to try and fight on alone while the Labour Party are doing nothing ?
John Greyfield
August 9, 2019 at 10:18 am
Answer: There is no one to organise protests or resistance to the roll out of universal credit.
Hardy
August 9, 2019 at 3:13 pm
Not ‘authorised’, not ‘funded, not part of the ‘agenda” Would be squashed by the filth before it even got off the ground.
Chelsea
August 9, 2019 at 3:17 pm
It’s no good sites like the Canary drivelling on with their praise of Corbyn, as if he is the Messiah of the Labour Party. You can see for yourself exactly what is wrong with the Labour Party, if you look at how useless they have been on Universal Credit.
Harry P.
August 9, 2019 at 3:29 pm
Nobody gives a shit about universal credit unless it affects them – and why why they? Oh but, you might be unemployed one day, disabled one day, blah, blah. Well, people would cross that bridge when they come to it. Or put another way, if you weren’t on universal credit would you give a shit about those who were on it – of course you wouldn’t. And why would you. Time to get real!
Down Under
August 9, 2019 at 10:39 pm
Well that’s Amber’s job here really isn’t it ? To hard-sell Universal Credit, and keep dodging all the criticism until the rollout is completed. Because it’s obvious the Tories are not going to stop with it. To them it’s still the difference between being in work or on benefits.
Malcolm
August 9, 2019 at 1:57 pm
ICO forces Citizens Advice £51 million Universal Credit contract to be released in full
https://mrfrankzola.wordpress.com/2019/08/09/51million/
ken
August 9, 2019 at 11:20 pm
Jezza is good at raising his voice, wailing and whining, trouble is he ain’t much cop at the thinking and brain work. And it ain’t a good look to pull a face like you’re sucking a lemon whenever anybody ask you a question. Poor old Jezza. If you can’t stand being quizzed by the media and the public, probably because you don’t have any answers, being prime minister probably really ain’t your bag man.
Q. Coldwater
August 9, 2019 at 3:20 pm
Pro-Brexit Twitter account accused of ‘dehumanising’ Remainers with ‘vermin’ slur
The account made the slur in a tweet congratulating independent Brexiteer MP Frank Field for his decision to contest his Birkenhead seat after standing down from the Labour Party last year.
“Well done to Frank Field for defending his seat at the next election after being ousted from his local Labour party by Remainer vermin,” said the Leave.EU tweet.
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/leave-eu-tweets-that-remainers-are-vermin-1-6199044
Here we can see the same individual praising the centre for social justice whilst claiming to be campaigning for those on benefits.
https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/
ken
August 9, 2019 at 7:19 pm
Corbyn is a rebel, a political outsider, a determined-to-do-the-opposite type. He has always been the same. This is why so often sets off down some side-track of his own. Instead of dealing with the most important issues.
Dave Blunt
August 9, 2019 at 3:36 pm
“In proportion therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases.”
― Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
Doctor Strangelove
August 9, 2019 at 3:47 pm
Andrew Coates
August 9, 2019 at 4:48 pm
Very wrong. But the longer this all goes on, and the longer it remains unchallenged by Labour, the more accepted it is going to become. It’s like the concept of British Foodbanks. This would have been a scandal a decade ago. Something that happened in the USA, or in the poverty-stricken countries of Africa. Not here in Britain.
But now no-one is shocked anymore by a great mass of people having to be fed by foodbanks.
Jeff Smith
August 10, 2019 at 7:53 pm
‘ While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.’ Matthew 26 v. 47 -50
Harry Carter
August 10, 2019 at 11:30 am
DAVID DREW: Universal Credit rules are inhumane
WHEN a Stroud resident diagnosed with stage-four terminal cancer contacted me saying he had been declared ‘fit for work’, it was yet another reason to call for change to inhumane Universal Credit rules.
Despite his advanced and debilitating condition, he was subject to repeated assessments to prove his eligibility for Universal Credit.
In one of those assessments, more than a year after the diagnosis, he was declared ‘fit for work’ and expected to seek employment.
https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/17829102.david-drew-universal-credit-rules-inhumane/
ken
August 10, 2019 at 8:31 pm
Unbelievable Ken. It’s like some sort of horror story.
Tom Sutton
August 11, 2019 at 1:10 pm
Well, folks, despite the fact that the Tories are angling to crash the country out of the EU suffering economic convulsion and disaster here I am on holiday in Romania, where the vampires come from, enjoying myself with my plates of meat up enjoying a well deserved rest after a hard year masquerading as a political leader. The weather’s here, wish you were beautiful! Tee-hee. See what I did there? D’ya get it? Good one ‘eh? See ‘ya.
Jeremy Corbyn MP
August 11, 2019 at 10:40 am
Jeremy, can I ask you a question ? Are you going to do anything about Universal Credit or not ?
Labour Voter
August 11, 2019 at 1:36 pm
As soon as somebody tells me I promise to let you know.
Jeremy Corbyn MP
August 11, 2019 at 4:52 pm
Andrew Coates
August 11, 2019 at 11:11 am
Yes, but this is only for people who were previously receiving the extra payments for severe disability. Good news for them obviously, if true. But everyone else on Universal Credit is going to be stuck on the current inadequate payments. After a 4 year benefit freeze it would be the humane thing to raise all the benefit payments in line with inflation. But the Tories are not interested in humanity. They are more interested in ideology and their version of the Protestant Work Ethic.
Jeff Smith
August 11, 2019 at 1:07 pm
Why don’t they just pay them JSA and give them extra cash if and when they need it? These are the types who you find have £thousands squirreled away. But they keep playing the disabled card whilst everyone else on benefits gets crushed under the DWP jackboot.
Badeela
August 11, 2019 at 4:48 pm
‘Community on the edge – Universal Credit, unemployment and homelessness’ in poverty stricken Northfield
Families in the area are struggling to survive on ‘fundamentally flawed’ benefit system, says Richard Burden MP
Universal Credit, unemployment, a lack of skills and the crippling impact of austerity.
Those are the fundamental factors which have seen Northfield and the surrounding areas plunged deeper into poverty over the decades.
Thousands of struggling individuals, couples and even families with young children rely on food banks to survive.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/community-edge-universal-credit-unemployment-16663277
ken
August 11, 2019 at 9:55 pm
wots this about like they say that after the uk goes brexit donald trump like is gonna by up all the jobcentres and everyone will have to sign off n get no money. is this true like?
simpil
August 12, 2019 at 12:24 am
I notice we haven’t heard much from the Universal Credit Pilot Scheme in Harrogate ? No happy news about ‘John who hasn’t worked for 20 years.’….etc. and is now in a job.
Dave Blunt
August 12, 2019 at 10:07 am
Lets look straight at the facts here. People are being made to work whether they like it or not.
Adam
August 12, 2019 at 10:10 am