Universal Credits- a new nightmare

Yes, I cn believe it. I wonder what award IDS will get? A knighthood? A lordship?

bit.ly/2zT0n98

A 38 degrees petition to sign to ask them to forget about the rules over Christmas.
It might have been on before; just a reminder.

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/assessment-regime-causes-disabled-women-terrifying-insecurity-mps-are-told/

This has to be good and hopefully will help a few of those whose Christmas has been destroyed by our government. Christmas Eve food donation from Aldi stores

Tory constituencies will not need to bother, though, GracesGran.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/calamitous-roll-out-universal-credit-11624261

It's unbelievable how cynical this government is becoming.
It's like they are chancing everything as they know they might not be in power much longer.
They were asked in parliament if they would pause the rollout in the NorthEast as it was happening this month, and Christmas would be a terrible time for those families without money. Some could even be made homeless before Christmas.

No! That is so underhand.

As mentioned in another post... would wasteful foreign aid be better spent here. And, please note, I said "wasteful". Apparently, Zimbabwe under Mugabe received £100m last year. Wonder what he did with the rest of money he received! Interesting also to Google foreign aid scandals. Why is there no accountability?!

I'm lost for words - polite ones, anyway!

news.huffingtonpost.com/t/t-l-kutdyky-l-t/

This won't help, MamaCaz.
It's about people with terminal illnesses having to have a work coach.
Couldn't make it up, could you?

I remember reading something along those lines a while back, durhamhen, maybe last year. It made me feel physically sick then that anyone could be so heartless and insensitive, and still does!

They tell us they don't have the figures in the required format for the numbers who have died while waiting for benefits to be sorted out.
The people who do have them are called purveyors of fake news.

A good idea.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/labour-brings-brexit-tactics-to-universal-credit-fight/

www.24housing.co.uk/news/grudging-gauke-releases-universal-credit-papers/

It's happened, but Gauke says that MPs should keep the results secret, even though the government says there is nothing to hide.
In which case what's the problem in releasing them to the press.
It's not Brexit papers, after all, as there aren't any of those!

kittysjones.wordpress.com/2017/12/07/thousands-of-disability-assessments-deemed-unacceptable-under-the-governments-own-quality-control-scheme/

Here's another lot that don't meet their own targets.

kittysjones.wordpress.com/2017/12/08/conservative-mps-accuse-citizens-of-scaremongering-stories-about-experiences-of-universal-credit/

Telling the truth about universal credit is scaremongering.
I bet she thought Daniel Blake was fiction, too.

Interesting thread about a little noticed consequence of Universal Credit:

threadreaderapp.com/thread/943829432791334913.html

Apparently it is paid to only one member of a household. The writer asks what happens where there is an abusive relationship or money is witheld by the payee which is needed for feeding and clothing the family.

Good comments, too, on the original twitter thread: twitter.com/helenlewis/status/943829432791334913

I am sure it was noticed earlier, and one of the tweets says so. Child Poverty Action Group, 2011.

t.co/lqncgNtEtN

IDS never took any notice of anyone.

This just shows how stupid the system is.

news.huffingtonpost.com/t/t-l-ulxjll-bdttdydit-h/

Frank Field mentioned a woman who had had no money and was being helped out by foodbanks.
Gauke then said Field was wrong.
Field said it was good that Gauke had managed to help someone but it was the wrong person!

Shouldn't helping people get benefits they are entitled to be more important than a twitter spat?
Ridiculous and demeaning.

Oh, and Gauke said he won't let the hard left win in the twittersphere!

Since when did Frank Field become hard left?
He votes with the government on Brexit.

t.co/7p8qixi2Ph

The government lost another courtcase about discriminating against those with mental health problems in its changes to benefits.
Not that that will change anything as far as Gauke is concerned.

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/court-orders-atos-to-pay-disabled-woman-5000-over-dishonest-pip-assessment/

This is really sad. It shows how PIP assessments are unfit for purpose.
DNS has lots of other articles about the problems with PIP.
It makes me so angry that the government can still treat people like this, and some people, including MPs, think it's acceptable.

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/universal-credit-roll-out-forcing-14088720

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/29/councils-forced-to-fund-emergency-help-for-universal-credit-claimants

Councils should not be having to use their money to prop up the benefit system.
It's just plainly wrong.

Does the government not give funding to councils for discretionary housing payments ? Shelter has said recently that some councils are holding back and not giving the money

Can you please refer me to that statemement by Shelter Anniebach? If that’s the case then it needs addressing.

Once your local authority has spent its budget (provided by the Government) it cannot award any more payments for that financial year. They cannot help everyone so decisions about priority have to be made.