Universal Credits- a new nightmare

Thank you for that information DJ

"Margaret Greenwood, the shadow minister for employment, said: “Universal credit is causing misery and hardship for thousands of families this Christmas and councils are being expected to pick up the pieces. This is yet more evidence that the government should immediately pause the roll out of universal credit so its fundamental flaws can be fixed.”

Newcastle city council reported that it was spending £390,000 supporting UC claimants, almost a quarter of which was for additional rent arrears support.

Liverpool city council said it had spent £175,000 from its local welfare provision scheme on UC claimants, while Shropshire council said it had set aside £20,000 to help food banks to “diversify the type of help they are able to give specifically to suit universal credit.”

In London, Tower Hamlets council said it had set aside £5m over three years to help those affected by the shift to UC, while Barking and Dagenham is budgeting £50,000 from January 2018.

In total, 26 councils said they had set aside extra resources or anticipated increased demand for welfare support as the UC rollout reaches their area."

From the article I linked to.
This is extra money on top of the discretionary housing payments which are provided by the government.
I can find no mention of Shelter saying that councils are holding back money.

I know that many councils spent more than they were allocated, but it is probably true thst others didn’t use up all of their allowance. That’s life.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

A good idea.

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

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.

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!

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'm lost for words - polite ones, anyway!

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?!

No! That is so underhand.

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.