To Universal Credit claimants in the Northwest and Northamptonshire:
As part of ongoing news stories we’ve done and campaigning on Universal Credit problems, journalists Natalie Bloomer, Charlotte Hughes and I want to attend Universal Credit meetings at jobcentres and to speak to more Universal Credit claimants about their experiences claiming UC.
We want to stay in contact with people who claim the benefit, to record people’s experiences in navigating the system and how/if problems are handled by the DWP.
We also want to accompany UC claimants to jobcentre and claimant commitment meetings if possible, to record those meetings and report back on people’s experiences.
Between us at the moment, we can attend meetings in the Northwest and Northamptonshire, and meet with people in those areas. As things continue, we may be able to travel further afield.
If you live in those areas, claim UC and are interested in talking with us, you can contact us by using the contact details or form on this page.
Good for you Kate, and the other two lady journalists as well.
Something seriously needs to be done about Universal Credit.
Haven’t claimed it myself, but a neighbour of mine went 10 weeks without a penny from the DWP. !! You could literally starve to death if it wasn’t for the foodbanks.
Yet food banks are a poor substitute for healthy food and a proper choice of food. People should be able to choose their preferred brands and types of food, rather than having to beg and accept whatever no else wanted. They should have a home with a proper kitchen, so that they can choose to cook, instead of having to rely on ready meals and instant “food”. Why should they HAVE TO live on instant mashed potato when they would like to peel, chop and cook a real potato, if only they had the means to do so?
How is this affecting the nation’s health?
Miles away, in the land of the well-to-do, the latest research shows that “ultra-processed food” increases your chances of getting cancer.
Yet what are you supposed to live on if you are in bed-and-breakfast accommodation or you can’t pay for electricity/gas or you have to rely on the food bank’s long-life foodstuffs because you have no money for shopping?
Well I’m not on UC yet, thank God, still on JSA (which is bad enough but nowhere near as horrific), & that’s a big factor in my reluctance to take a temporary job, because any break in my claim or change in circumstances results in me going on to UC, something I obviously want to avoid at all costs. As soon as I get put onto UC I’ll be Sanctioned forever & a day as I will
…will NOT do 35 hours a week jobsearch for anyone, & will have to live on Hardship for the rest of my life instead, or at least for th next 9 yrs til I can Retire, or perhaps until Corbyn gets in and calls an Amnesty on all Benefit Sanctions? Be nice if he would. Over to you Labour…
I pity the single mums (and single dads) expected to juggle 35 hours per week of job search with full-time childcare, all because the DWP no longer accepts that being a mum is a full-time job.
Poor people have to drag small children to job centres and libraries every day. What about the development of the child? I don’t think a job centre is an environment for a child. They should be in play rooms and playgrounds, playing with toys while their mothers/fathers talk to them, read to them, wash them, dress them, clean up after them, cook them healthy food, shop for their healthy food, take them to the doctor and the dentist, etc.
I am not in favour of institutionalising babies and young children at all-day nurseries and child-minders’ while their parents go to work. I think there should be a parent at home with a young child. Part-time nursery is good for young children, but 14-hour days at childcare institutions are exhausting for children and take away from time they could be spending bonding with their families. Working parents can be too tired to give their children the time and attention they really need.
There are, of course, some parents who thrive in full-time work while they have small children at home. However, many parents find that too much. Especially poorer parents, who cannot pay for things that save them time, e.g. shopping delivery, cars, home computers, taxis, last-minute babysitters…
Trev, just write down stuff like you walked around the town centre all day looking for work and you read the job ads in the paper every day. How do they know whether it took you 35 hours?
Yeah but even that would drive you nuts doing it nonstop. I was told 2 years ago that when I go on toUC they expect me to do 5 hours jobsearch per day, 7 days a week, nonstop. Thats what the JCP adviser said to me. I stronglyobjectedand she got mad & started raising her voice, then theG4 ss nazi guard came over & stood really close to me in an intimidating manner!And I still havent been put on UC.
It’s awful that the system takes no account of people’s feelings. It’s all about punishment, as if you’re a naughty boy for not having a job. No wonder we have a mental health crisis across our country. We do not support one another the way we should.
I’m sure I would have reacted the same way that you did if they had started threatening me with all the new “scary” rules. It feels like they are taking the p1ss and like they really need a good slap.
Exactly Trev. Universal Credit is also a system that penalises people who are too honest for their own good. Frankly you are much better off not admitting that you only managed say, 30 hours of jobsearch.
If you do there can only be one outcome, sanction.
Trev, remember that Hardship Payments are repayable loans under Universal Credit, not like JSA. If you get sanctioned while claiming UC it will be for a certain number of days.
After the sanction period the money is deducted straight away from the normal Universal Credit payment. So you only need to be sanctioned two or three times to have nothing or virtually nothing coming in. It’s an evil system that just tightens the screw with each offense.
Aye also there’s a srikes an grades system
There are low medium an high
Each with increasing time periods for first second and third sanctions
Low level
First sanction 7 days
Second sanction 14 days
Third sanction 28 days
Medium sanctions
Only has two strikes on this one
First is 4 weeks second is 13
High level
First 13 weeks
Second 26 weeks
Third 3 years
Job coaches will (in my experience) always try to tell you no mater what your infraction that you could be sanctioned for up to 3 years but it’s not true (if you ask me you shouldn’t be able to be sanctioned at all, for the state to say “this is the absolute minimum you need to survive” then take it away at the drop of a hat takes the piss)
Here’s a more comprehensive guide
http://benefitsaware.centralenglandlc.org.uk/universal-credit-sanctions/
Trouble is it’s all being overshadowed by Brexit. Which looks to a total disaster. With Theresa May playing hide & seek as long as she thinks can get away with it.
Benefit claimants are not a political priority at the moment.
trev just put down any old 5H1T do you think they spend time phoning places to check if you applied? Before I went on ESA I used to take phone numbers off places that were boarded up and make up job applications it took about 90 minutes a fortnight, I played their game and won. In the end, I didn’t put anything down and turned up at 10 AM about 70% of the time said I had an exam on so and so course then went off for a drive. That’s what came from throwing the Chocolate Fireguard (Security Guard) over the desk.
Totally true. Less is always more with the DWP, and what they don’t know can’t hurt you.
The most honest people always end up getting sanctions. Because if you haven’t done the 35 hours, you are in trouble. So always make believe that you have, and act accordingly.
Yes, Trev. I also fear changing anything in case they change my benefits.
DWP sent me a form to fill in about part-time/voluntary work two days before Christmas. I filled it in and sent it back. Then they sent me EXACTLY THE SAME form in early February! I sent that back. Now I have received a letter asking about paid “permitted work” I did in 2013! So I need to write to them AGAIN.
I’m lucky because I’m confident with forms and letters. I dread to think what it must be like for people who need to attend Citizens Advice every time they get one.
Keeping up with all the paperwork is a deterrent.
In an ideal world, I could manage without benefit, but in real life I need to pay bills. Since they halved my Housing Benefit in 2012, I have been relying on sick benefit to pay the rent. If I were well enough to get a part-time job, how would I pay the rent? I could attempt to claim Universal Credit, but the endless meetings and the endless threat of sanctions would doubtless make me ill again.
Just anticipating the post takes up much of my day. Some days, I sit at the window for hours watching for the postman. Today, I went to volunteering in the morning. Then I came home to a brown envelope from the DWP.
It’s awful Alison, I know what you mean about the dreaded brownenvolopes, I dread getting any post these days. Got a letter out of the blue the other day from somddebt company ive never heard of saying I owe £700 to nPower for my previous address that I moved from 3 yrs ago. It’s got to be a mistake, there’s no way I owe that amount. Npower are notorious for this, theyve already been fined Millions by the Regulator but are still doing this to people, and I found outon th e net that you can claim compensation now for incorrect demands for npower, so just waiting for the debt co. to get back to me & confirm It’s a mistake then I’m off to Citizens Advice. Could do without the stress though.
Oh no! I’m with npower now!
Good thing I’m planning to return to EOn, although I saw a TV programme once about a man who went 4 years with no electricity because EOn gave him a pre-payment meter that didn’t work and they refused to accept that he didn’t break it! They insisted that he must pay for a new one. Then they told him he had a bill for using electricity, even though he was prevented from using it by this dud meter that didn’t work!!! I was amazed at how unreasonable they were.
In 3 years’ time, I’ll look out for my letter from npower!
Google it,npowerhave issued loads ofincorrectbills for spurious amountsallegedley owed frompastrdinces etc.They were fined £26 Million a fewyearsago but It’s stillhappening.Their accountsmustbe inchaos.Anothergood reason to Nationalize energy.
Yes, we should RE-nationalise energy. It’s only been privatised for a short time and the experiment has been a failure.
Privatising the railways was OK on some lines, but it seems the experiment has failed spectacularly on others. I think even the Tories are coming to realise it might be time to re-nationalise them!
We should re-nationalise water, too. We pay them to provide a service, but they use our money to pay out dividends. My water company says it spends £1 in every £5 to repay debt. That’s nearly as bad as the government. Yet I doubt they were cutting back on salaries and dividends when they were borrowing money.
I don’t even get to choose my water company, so it’s not a real market anyway.
I find emails to CEO’s of providers works a treat I don’t know why people don’t check out Outfox the Market.com no standing charge just a monthly charge for Leccy between £6.99 & £13.99 depending on usage
Some of those letters are so stupid & weird.
Like the one where they write to you to tell you that they are writing to you to tell you that your benefits have not changed.
I know just what you mean. You can read it at first glance and it doesn’t seem to make any sense. Until you look at it again. Talk about stupid, must be unreadable if english is not your first language.
Probably the person sending it speaks no English. (Then we wonder why British people can’t find work…)
This letter has a blank space below “yours sincerely”. A friend thinks that means it comes from robot!
that’s the situation i’m in now, worked for a 2 weeks in nov/dec and now on uc, nothing but problems and you can’t get out of it
i started my claim last nov 20th, but because i got a job on the 21/11 i stopped my claim and went to work till the 6/12, i then finished the claim, which i thought a fresh claim only to find that it went from 20/11 and because i’d earned over their limit in those 16 days(10-12hr shifts no free days) they stopped my money for the month, they’re also stopping £8,70p of me because i had more than £6000 capital, i’m not interested in the money really but when i asked if they covered my stamp no-one had the answer, at one stage they stopped my money because they said i hadn’t given proof of my capital, but in my journal it said i’d been to my meeting and given the bank statements the day they sent a message on my journal that it was stopped, have you any idea about who pays the NI stamps?
Contact your MP because the JCP know sod all, your savings can go over £6000 but must be under by the time of the next payment. As an example, you get paid on the first of every month your account must be under the £6000 on the first of the following month it can still be over though if you get a payment PIP/DLA in between, say on the 17th then every 28 days, the payments of UC. Anything not used from either UC or PIP/DLA is classed as savings after the next date
thanks, i’ll have to check because the capital dropped during the period because i had to pay B&B, food and petrol money. this all started because i worked for 2mths came of jsa , started a new claim on the20/11 but was offered 2 weeks work which i took starting the 21/11, but didn’t finish the claim which i thought would be dropped, but when i came back on the 6/12 the claim continued from 20/11. they now punish you for working or having any savings, on jsa they weren’t bothered if you had up to £16000 in assets i understood. i only really claim to get my stamp paid, now no one knows how that stands
Burnett, I think they only pay your stamps if you’re on the sick.
I notice the latest thing from the DWP is to try and talk down the idea of retirement.
The new thinking is Work Coaches saying ”But you don’t have to retire, a lot of people are not retiring now at retirement age, you can be more flexible about it.”
That will be the next thing, trying to make ordinary working people guilty about retiring.
Yeah disgrace is what it is. Anybody should be able to retire at retirement age if they want to, without any crap from the DWP.
As far as I know, people can still retire. It’s just that more bs from DWP comes with it. More bs from DWP comes with everything these days. A bit like fries come with everything at McDonalds.
Soon we’ll have a GCSE in taking s from DWP.
(Sorry trolls in Leamington Spa…)
I have a view on retirement.
People get old and get frail and develop health problems. Therefore, it is necessary for people to give up working. Surely that’s common sense!
The more they raise the retirement age, the more people claim sick benefit and the more the government complains about the sick benefit bill. It is cheaper to pay pensions than to assess people for sick benefit.
This rhetoric about never retiring seems to me to be an extension of the notion that no one should have to stay home from work due to illness, otherwise it’s treated as a disciplinary matter, and that no one should have to claim sickness benefit otherwise they’re “faking it”. We seem to be suffering from a shortage of common sense.
What are employers supposed to do? Pay wages to manual workers staggering around on crutches and zimmoframes? How are they going to retire people who become too frail for the job? They would have to launch disciplinary/incompetence proceedings against everyone!
The Old Age Pension was not invented for no reason…
I know it’s difficult politically for Labour, but they must do something about Universal Credit. Not think about it, or talk about it, but actually do something about it. Jeremy Corbyn is going to be judged on this . If Labour does nothing again like Miliband, a lot of people are going to think very badly of Labour, and it could well hurt them at the election. When a large number will be suffering under Universal Credit.
Yes I am 59 year old woman who been on this terrible universal credit for 2 months I am suffering badly the payment I was getting was 395 and they cut it to 245 because they said they over pay my rent now my rent not getting pay so I can’t pay my rent because my rent is more then want I am getting this so bad I can’t pay any other bills just about get food then I have to get gas and electricity I always work till my doctors sign me off that was 18 months this is not England this groverment need to scarp this terrible benefit cause a lot of us going to be homeless and hungry can’t believe I am living let this
DWP”s fake benefit claimants Zac” and Sarah” in leaflet praising welfare sanctions system have been caught fake-friending disabled people on Facebook.
Big Brother indeed! Better not mention boarded-up shops and going for a drive, otherwise your Facebook “friends” will get you sanctioned. “For your own good,” of course.
Hi I’m Sarah,
Ever since I read that you’re on disability, I’ve been so keen to get to know you.
I love Mondays, I adore the Tories and I’m stark raving mad about IDS.
Tell me, have you ever spent less than 35 hours per week searching for a job? I did. I spent 34 hours pacing the town centre wearing my cv on a sandwich board, and then I spent my 35th hour running in a field of wheat. Shocking, isn’t it?
P.S. There were weeds in the field of wheat, but I never inhaled.