Universal Credits- a new nightmare

Could you put some detail on that remark Lemons and then I might be able to answer it. It isn't really a question is it - just you being nasty again.

petra, have you any comments related to Universal Credit, or only to shoes?

(I don't know why GN seems to attract people who like to talk about shoes.)

I haven't noticed it before FarNorth.

I think (dare I say this) the UC issue is like waiting for the second shoe to drop. We know something else, probably pretty dreadful, is coming, but we don't know what and we don't know when. I do think the Tories are determined to continue though.

Basic Income was discussed on the Daily Politics today so it seems to be coming in from the cold and edging into mainstream conversation. Perhaps someone will have a lightbulb moment - but I shan't hold my breath.

lemon, petra and annie do you have anything to say about UC?

It's the living wage foundation living wage next week, I think.
It will be good to see if the government raises there pretend one.

Sorry, it's late.
'Their', I meant to write.

Mmm. I think there must be something going on as UBI was mentioned on The Pledge this week, which I found very unexpected. It was the women who was on The Apprentice - Michelle someone who spoke about it and she seemed very surprised she was contemplating it but felt she had to. I think it may be because they are trialling it in Scotland.

According to Andrea Leadsom, government ministers are to be given 12 weeks to come to parliament and explain after they have refused to vote on opposition debates such as the two universal credit ones.
That gives them until next year to sort something out. In the meantime, the roll-out will continue for those in my constituency and about fifty others.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/advance-payments-no-solution-to-fundamental-flaws-in-universal-credit/

Everyone knows having advance payments is a stupid idea. Why do they need an extra 12 weeks to sort something out?

Even if they don't do UBI, they could at least even up the Living Wage, so that those under 25 have a decent amount to live on. The Real Living Wage applies to all over 18.
They say they want to help the young.

Michelle Mone?
Is she the one from Hull?

durhamjen
Michelle Mone. That would be Barroness Mone from Glasgow.

It was Michelle Dewberry Jen. Sorry, I was too tired to look it up last night. She is generally very right wing so it was a real surprise that this was her 'topic'. I am beginning to think they are given the subject to discuss rather than, as they try to present, deciding for themselves. I record it but often don't watch it if Carole Malone is on as I find her loud and boring but did last night as they were discussing UBI. I can only think the interest is because they are trialling it in Scotland.

So was I, GracesGran.
Michelle Dewberry was the one from Hull.

www.politics.co.uk/news/2017/10/26/dwp-quietly-drops-universal-credit-child-poverty-forecast

Because universal credit is increasing child poverty, and they don't want us to know.

Tories and UBI?
Because it will be easier and quicker to administer than universal credit?

I may have already said this ( can’t trawl back pages) but most MP’s and also others think that UC is good in principle, but needs to be brought down to four weeks instead of six.The purpose of rolling out these things in stages is to try and get it right.Hopefully the government will take concerns about it seriously.We shall see.

Can you explain why the government gave a three line whip to abstain from two votes on universal credit, in that case?
That does not show they are taking concerns about it seriously.

They don’t want it to be ‘paused’ I think, but I do hope they will bring down the waiting times.

Those of us who have been following it closely know they don't want a pause. However, would you like to be without any money between now and Christmas, which is what is going to happen to those on benefits in my constituency?

It's no good them saying they can have loans. A loan has to be paid back.
They are moving people who are used to being paid weekly onto monthly pay for no reason whatsoever.

I am amongst those ‘ who have been following it closely’
And have always felt that four weeks should have been the time, not six.Four weeks is when most people in work receive their pay, so it’s meant to be in line with that.

Four weekly has never been the time for those on benefits to be paid.
Four weeks in advance, okay, but to pay in arrears right from the start must be wrong.
Over 50% of those in the pilot schemes have ended up in debt.

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/anger-universal-credit-rolled-out-13707050

If someone left a weekly paid job and took a monthly paid job, at the start of its payment month, they would have to tide themselves over till their first money from the new job.

I guess they'd have thought of that, though, and wouldn't move jobs if they wouldn't be able to cope.

People on benefits, or starting to claim benefits, usually haven't had any choice in the matter of whether they can cope with a long wait for money.

So the government is not "helping them to adjust" as it claims. It is creating misery for them.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has quietly dropped its estimates of how many children will be lifted out of poverty because of Universal Credit.

Why am I not surprised Jen? I hate to think where they will have taken us by the time they go.

If they genuinely believed that UC would lift children out of poverty, and genuinely want that to happen, I hope they are having a speedy rethink on this, not just keeping quiet.

When some companies who pay monthly begin employing a person who has been in a job paying weekly they ask if the person would like fortnightly payments the first couple of months.

www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/i-suffer-three-fits-day-684806

Maybe the idea is to reduce the population - the number of people who admit to thinking about suicide because of universal benefit problems is horrendous.