Save up for rent before you’re switched to Universal Credit, coz you won’t get money for 6 weeks

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Courtesy of Stockport United Against Austerity:

Telling, if useless, advice on the Stockport Homes website which instructs people who claim legacy benefits how to prepare for their claims being migrated to Universal Credit.

The most extraordinary bit of advice on the page? – telling people who have no money, or savings, to start saving so that they can cover a six-week delay to their rent money when they’re switched from legacy benefits to Universal Credit:

“Get ahead with your rent – Unlike Housing Benefit, under Universal Credit you become responsible for paying your rent and after switching you will face a six-week delay before receiving your first payment. You should still pay your rent during this time. It’s important that you are prepared so you don’t get into debt. Putting an extra few pounds on to your rent account each week to build a credit balance will mean you can still pay your rent when you switch.”

This is extraordinary. Hope Therese Coffey reads it. Not that she’ll give a stuff.

This “advice” is an admission by the largest landlord in Stockport that built-in Universal Credit delays cause serious hardship to the worst off people in Stockport and threaten their tenancies.

It’s an instruction to people who have no money to save money to protect themselves against Universal Credit’s serious flaws. This is garbage. Those of us who leaflet at Stockport jobcentre know people can’t save enough to build a rent buffer. We keep meeting Universal Credit claimants who are in serious rent arrears and either facing homelessness, or are actually homeless.

You could also say that the above advice is an attempt by a big landlord that also manages properties for other landlords to threaten claimants to save money so that landlords aren’t inconvenienced by Universal Credit’s built-in rent-delay arrears generator. We can’t have property owners being put out by all of this.

Blogging will be light-ish until the end of the year as am finishing up a transcription project of interviews, and homelessness and jobcentre meeting recordings. Still available for contact here.

94 thoughts on “Save up for rent before you’re switched to Universal Credit, coz you won’t get money for 6 weeks”

  1. The only way you could do that would be to apply for a Budgeting Loan (if those are still available) whilst you are still on JSA, then put it in a biscuit tin, weld it shut, and bury it in the garden ready for when the day comes when you get to transferred to Universal Credit. How the hell can anyone save up on an income of £73 per week less Council Tax = total income of £68 p/w ? I’ve just spent my last two quid on printing out my job evidence in the Library ready for tomorrow’s face-to-face showdown in the Jobcentre (i.e. my signing appointment charade). I have no money left until Friday (and today is Monday). I’ll be picking up dog-ends in the street on the way back home, and living on toast for most of the week. That’s the reality of life on the dole.

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    • It is total shit. Most of the people I’ve interviewed at foodbanks etc are already in debt – particularly council tax debt after benefit was cut (and usually 100s in court costs by that stage), social fund debt, budgeting loan debt etc. Universal Credit delays are just a few more nails in the coffin. The idea that people can put aside £20 a week over however many months to save hundreds for a couple of months’ rent is straight out of twat central.

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      • Yep, I’m not even on UC yet, still on JSA, but recently became Officially Insolvent. I’ve wiped off my old debts, just have to pay my current ones and struggle to buy food etc. I need four quid right now so I can go to the laundrette to wash my bedding as it’s getting a bit sticky now but will have to wait til Friday.

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  2. The whole of universal credit is a joke I understand the housing benefit cap that was in place ie – you can’t rent a mansion etc but the allowance now doesn’t even cover the lowest rents it’s a fucking farce you get a lot less money and now you have to pay for prescriptions etc the whole system of benefits is not fit for purpose people are dying because of it what else has to happen before someone says enough I lost my job 2 years ago and I can’t work because of fibromyalgia my partner works full time and we get universal credit my fella has always taken the money instead of holidays but that is used in calculating our universal credit holiday pay is an entitlement not a bonus from where I’m sat once your on universal credit you can’t climb out of the hole it puts you in its just another way of keeping the working man or woman down on top of all the shit that goes with universal credit I’m having to go to appeal to claim p.i.p and also I’m going through a benefit fraud investigation I am not guilty so I’m at crown court in March 2020 this has been going on since 2017, it started around 2 weeks before I claimed universal credit I’d lost my job and the “ evidence “ they have is Shyte they’ve had a malicious report that I was living with my partner ( we weren’t ) drove past my house seen his works wagon looked on Facebook we are engaged so we are guilty (not) his wagon is 20 foot long if I was dishonestly claiming I wouldn’t of let him park it there ! The best bit is DWP told the council I hadn’t been declaring my earnings and told them that since the day we got engaged have lived together it’s like I’ve been investigated by inspector cluseau I keep all my letters eg working tax credit, letters from council etc and can disprove them I can’t wait to wipe the smile off the investigators face he’s a liar and I hope he looses his job and ends up on universal credit sorry for the rambling rant

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    • Well there’s talk of Labour scrapping Universal Credit, so if true that gives us some hope. Being on JSA is bad enough and is shite, but I didn’t realize you have to pay for prescriptions on UC, is that the case? I get mine free at the moment and that’s a big thing to consider if I got a min. wage job (along with free dental treatment).

      Anyway, here’s the link about Labour and UC:

      https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/labour-to-pledge-to-end-universal-credit/

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      • I think if unemployed on Universal credit you get free prescription u tick the JSA box since its not updated the prescription forms yet.
        I just got a prepayment certificate since I work and am too scared to claim housing top up. I have a regular 2 items a month and sometimes antibiotics ect. I pay 10.40 a month.

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    • @ marie
      I too think UC is a vicious disaster, and a deliberately planned one at that. However, you’re wrong regarding your partner being specifically penalized under UC because he choose’s to work through his holidays instead of taking his holiday. That has always been the case, even under JSA rules.
      Whilst you are right that working throughout a holiday does not class as a bonus, it does class as working overtime (which in fact you’re doing), and the same rules apply as working ‘normal’ overtime when it comes to calculating various benefits. Therefore, it will reduce/wipe out your entitlement to various benefits for that time period; usually Housing benefit or the housing element of UC.

      The confusion arises because people working p/t (or f/t in a high rent area such as London) but still claiming a bit of JSA and full housing benefit (or just HB, either in full or just partial HB) may well have worked through their holidays and it didn’t affect their JSA/HB. That’s because they didn’t inform the Job Center (if claiming a bit of JSA) or their local HB office if just claiming HB. That bit of blurb about informing relevant authorities of a “change in circumstances” applies to both overtime worked/working through paid holidays as much as it does to changing address or getting married.
      Had they informed them, it most certainly would have affected their JSA/HB claims for the time period involved.
      In other words, they got away with it by keeping stum. Whether that was through simple ignorance, or deliberately withholding that info, is neither here nor there. The end result was the same; their benefits went unaffected.

      That is no longer the case under UC as you either have to provide wage slips monthly to UC for your claim, or UC receives info monthly from HMRC from the company employing you about how much you earn each month.
      It only ever made sense to work through a paid holiday if you’re not reliant on various benefits to top-up your wages. That way you get to keep the extra money you’ve earned by sacrificing time off from work. Otherwise, if on various benefits, just take the paid holiday. If you don’t, then you’re effectively paying not to have a holiday, and working for that dubious privilege to boot instead of having a well earned break!

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  5. this is what can happen when you have a Tory government hell bent on killing us off
    there wanting to make themselves rich and everyone else poor there worried about
    Brexit than people get them out now

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  6. Oh God, I’ve just got back from my signing appointment at the Jobcentre and it was a different Adviser standing in as my usual one is off today. Anyway, she looked at my details on her computer and asked if I was in “provision” or has that ended now? I replied that I was on the Right Steps to Work course and that ended last month. She said “oh well you’ll have to be in some sort of provision, all our customers are in provision now” adding that my usual Adviser will speak to me about it next time. So I asked what she meant and she said it’ll be at Interserve, a more intensive course for something like 3 days a week for “about 5 weeks, something like that”. I said but it’s not compulsory is it? And she just answered that everyone’s doing it. I’ve only just finished the 12 months Right Steps bullshit and now they’re wanting to send me somewhere else, bloody Interserve ffs. There’s just no end to their bullshit. And why are they taking it upon themselves to refer people to these private profit-making companies, at taxpayers expense, when it’s not part of Law and not mandatory?

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    • This sounds like a Jobcentre runaround to me. ‘All our people are on provision ?’ So all the claimants in your Jobcentre are being referred to training providers ? I think you’ll find this is some local Jobcentre manager trying it on. It does clear the claimant lists, because with a lot of these ‘training providers’ being on a course with them takes the JSA claimant off the unemployed count. But they can’t just send you round and round on courses all the time.
      Not on JSA at least.

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      • I know, it’s ridiculous, but they bully you into it and make it hard to refuse, as though it means or infers that you don’t want a job if you’re unwilling to co-operate, as if going on these pointless courses is going to get you into long-term work. I’m bloody sick of the Jobcentre.

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    • I’ve discovered a little bit more information about the next course they are wanting to send me on. It is run by Interserve, it is 3 days a week for 5 weeks. It is situated not in the town centre but on the other side of town from where I live, two bus rides away. As for the course content that seems a bit ambiguous, my JCP Adviser says that the woman running it wants it to be whatever you want it to be (?) and is tailoring it to peoples’ needs, so that if there is anything specific you need help with such as “filling in application forms” she will help you with that. I replied that “so she’s just winging it?” and the Dole Clerk said “No, she’s not winging it, it’s a structured course”. Well supposing I don’t need help to fill a form in, or require her help with anything in particular? I am perfectly capable of composing a letter, and using email /internet, I know how to fill forms in, etc. It sounds like a complete waste of time to me. And I hope to God they don’t have us doing those stupid “team-building exercises”! My Dole Clerk aka Work Coach also said that it takes precedence over my voluntary work so that is going to cause me more hassle and inconvenience. These ridiculous courses are not about helping people into work, they are about purposefully interrupting the lives of the unemployed whilst transferring public money into private businesses like Interserve, keeping themselves in a job, and box-ticking on the side of the Jobcentre.

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  7. Unbelievable really that people are being given advice like this. But the doomsayers were right about Universal Credit. It has been an absolute disaster. A carefully-planned disaster, designed to force people off benefits and put them off claiming in the first place. Or as Duncan Smith would have it ‘social justice.’

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  13. Let’s not forget how many deaths the DWP and Tories have caused with their Welfare reforms and Austerity:

    https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/09/22/this-fit-for-work-death-story-should-move-you-to-tears-because-its-years-old-and-nothing-has-changed/

    https://dpac.uk.net/2015/08/dpac-comment-dwp-statistics-on-claimant-deaths/

    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-lies-again-about-impact-of-benefits-freeze-on-disabled-people/

    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwps-secret-benefit-deaths-reviews-universal-credit-death-linked-to-claimant-commitment-threats/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/tory-austerity-deaths-study-report-people-die-social-care-government-policy-a8057306.html

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/killed-benefits-cuts-starving-soldier-3923771

    https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/six-stone-emaciated-man-who-16160644

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  17. Universal Credit is now shown in its true colours. Poverty and despair.
    If only it had been opposed by the unions from the start. But they played along with it. The TUC even supported it, as a good thing. Shameful.

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  21. I went for my appointment at the Jobcentre yesterday morning, and went through the usual patter, and my advisor said to me that there were some jobs going as they need Welsh speaking advisors, (paying just under £27k pa). So, to show willing, I said that I’d apply, knowing full well that I would be highly unlikely to get through the series of online aptitude tests. In the past the tests were based on a STAR approach, and I, predictably failed, as I felt that to pass you’d need to be pretty much a psychopath. The kind of tests used now are different, but in order to pass I still think you probably need be someone who wouldn’t be overly bothered if it came to selling their own grandmothers. I’m glad to say that I failed, though the e-mail sent to confirm that I had failed was completely wrong, as I was far from being disappointed, I was actually quite relieved.

    Maybe when/if Corbyn gets in I’ll apply again, as the Mirror article I linked to above says that they’ll be looking for an additional 5000 advisors. I hope they change the online tests though, as I don’t think 5000 extra psychopaths working in the DWP or whatever it will be called under Labour, would be a good idea.

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    • I hate those online psychometric tests, like you I always fail them. I even failed the test for Aldi has the questions all seemed to be getting at “can you stick a broom up your arse whilst doing ten things at once and never under any circumstances bother the Manager?” . My attitude is in most cases it’s the Manager’s fucking job, they are paid to manage, I am paid to serve customers and stock the shelves.

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      • About the only people those kinds of tests benefit are the Human Resources people justifying their own positions. Maybe some kind of aptitude test would be useful for some specialised types of work, but I really don’t see how they are useful in bottom of the rung jobs, such as dole clerk or as in your experience Trev, a shelf stacker in Aldi.

        Another reason I don’t like psychometric tests is that it’s relatively easy to falsify them, if you know what you’re doing. Under different circumstances, where I wouldn’t be expected to sanction people or to be a real bastard, working as an advisor for the Jobscentre wouldn’t be a bad job, but as it stands, no, I wouldn’t want it for all the tea in China.

        I think more and more places are (mis)using psychometric testing, even the likes of B&Q when they want to exploit older workers – just being old isn’t enough, you’ve got to be able to jump through the hoops in their tests too. It seems that all employers want ‘added value’ these days, that you’ll use your hard acquired skills for their benefit, so that they don’t have to shell out to provide decent training. It wouldn’t be so bad if employers were offering decent pay for these kinds of jobs, but no, it’s just the minimum wage.

        Talking of which, Labour have promised to raise it to £10 and hour, and now the Tories are saying they’ll raise it to £10.50 an hour. I’m pretty sure that Labour would deliver as soon as it could on their promise, but the Tories? They haven’t said when they’d raise it, so I’m figuring it’ll probably be sometime around 2025.

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  25. Whilst Labour are promising the abolition of Universal Credit, those nice people at Benefits and Work don’t seem to be too impressed:

    “AN END TO UNIVERSAL CREDIT, SANCTIONS AND THE DWP
    Labour are promising sweeping changes to the benefits system if they win an election.

    Though, at the moment, it is not at all clear how they would achieve their most headline grabbing offer, the killing-off of universal credit

    As the Institute for Fiscal Studies pointed out, so far the details of their proposals do not “amount to anything close to a scrapping of universal credit”.

    Nevertheless, the clear undertakings they have given would improve the lot of many claimants.

    They include:

    Scrapping the two child limit, the benefit cap and the bedroom tax
    Ending benefits sanctions
    Removing the 5 week wait for a first payment of UC and making an interim
    payment after two weeks
    Ending the requirement to claim UC online
    Hiring an extra 5,000 advisers to help people unable to make an online UC
    claim
    Abolishing the DWP and replacing it with a Department for Social Security

    For our (very much) younger readers, the DSS was the former name of the DWP until it was rebranded in 2001 by Blair’s Labour government.

    So reintroducing the DSS would be a step back in time and could well amount to nothing but a nostalgic PR exercise.

    But if the next government genuinely adopted the ethos set out by Margaret Greenwood, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions of “a social security system designed to end poverty, based on principles of dignity and universalism”, then that might actually make a difference.

    Here at Benefits and Work, however, we won’t be holding our breath.”

    Hmmm, it seems that Labour really need to be doing so much better.

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  29. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has published some new research that has found that there were only 52 two bed properties available for private rent that were ‘affordable’ (i.e came in at rents that would be covered by LHA) in the whole of Wales. Considering that Wales is the poorest country in the union, and one of the poorest regions of Europe it’s scandalous that rents are so high. I suspect that in rural areas, especially those that are attractive to tourists where rental property has always been hard to find, recent developments such as AirBnB have just made the situation even worse. Sadly none of the National Parks in Wales has adopted similar control measure to that of the Lake District or Dartmoor which does have some beneficial effect for people who qualify as local. Anyway, there is an article about it here, and I should imagine the situation in Wales largely reflects that of the UK as a whole.

    https://nation.cymru/news/housing-benefit-freeze-is-making-and-keeping-people-homeless/

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  31. It’s getting harder and harder to live on the dole, the Benefits freeze is really starting to bite as is having to pay Council Tax. I am really struggling now, I only got my JSA yesterday and there’s hardly anything left, if I pay my Council Tax (which is now due) then I won’t have enough to pay for my phone or Water bill installments. I think I can just about pay the Council Tax and the phone, but that will leave me with nothing and I certainly won’t be able to pay the water, let alone how the hell I’m going to make it through the coming fortnight. This is getting ridiculous. I haven’t even got anything of value that I could pawn. JSA needs to be increased to at least £90 per week. No wonder there is so much crime, debt, homelessness, and suicides. The Tories have got to GO!

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  34. I don’t know about anyone else but I’m not only struggling financially (on JSA) but at the moment am really struggling with my jobsearch, I can’t find anything to apply for! All the job alert emails that I receive tons of every day are either for jobs requiring skills and experience I don’t have, or are miles away and involve “fast paced” shift work needing youthful stamina and own transport. There’s bugger all I can apply for.

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    • Definitely an issue at Stockport. People have to apply for all kinds of rubbish just to meet jobsearch requirements. They never hear back about any of these applications but have to keep firing them out. I often wonder how much bandwidth nationally is filled each week with these thousands of pointless applications being sent all over the place.

      It occurs to me as I write this – in all the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve only every talked to one guy who actually got a job out of this “process.” One.

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      • There’s naff-all on the official Gov. Find A Job website either. It’s hopeless, pointless, soul-destroying, and worrying because of the ever-present threat of Sanctions if you’re deemed to have not applied for sufficient jobs. I’ve just seen one job that I could theoretically apply for, but it’s advertised all the time so obviously people don’t stick it for long, it consists of hand-sorting recycling waste at the local Council tip, it will stink to high heaven and the hours are 7.00am to 5.00pm, oh and you get a pay rise if you stick it more than 12 weeks. Sounds lovely. I imagine they would be wanting younger people anyway.

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      • I just went on Indeed and click-applied for about 9 or 10 jobs for the sake of it, mostly unsuitable and no chance of getting or would be able to do in reality. I’m worn out now and need a cuppa before my afternoon nap…

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        • I’ve actually attended jobcentre and so-called work skills meetings where the adviser told the person I was with just to put any old crap in their jobsearch, because the priority was filling in the forms as opposed to finding doable work. Lovely.

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          • That’s what does my head in. It’s a charade to justify the jobs of JCP box-tickers. And they can’t even be bothered to read or properly look at your jobsearch evidence when you’ve gone to all the trouble of doing it. Pre-Jobcentre, back in the days of the old Unemployment Office, it was just a verbal question; “have you done any work?” , “No”, “sign here. Goodbye”. That’s all that is needed the rest is just bullshit dreamt up by out-of-touch morons like IDS and Lord Freud.

  36. The DWP have been caught out advising people to downplay health conditions when applying for jobs:

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/08/jobseekers-told-to-call-their-depression-low-mood-on-applications

    I have been required to complete a health questionnaire in the past at an employment agency, that asked very specific questions with a yes/no tick box, e.g. “Do you have Arthritis?” , and “Do you have any stomach, digestive or bowel problems?”, “Do you have high cholesterol?”, “Have you ever suffered from Depression?” etc.
    It asked for a description of illnesses and what medication you were taking. Very thorough. I answered the questions honestly and was rejected for the job. The only other option would have been to lie. I knew another guy who went for the same job and did lie by not declaring that he had a heart condition and was on medication for life. He got hired but after 3 months they sacked him for not being fast enough. That was about 2 or 3 years ago. He died last Christmas, just short of his 57th birthday.

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  40. Remember when George Osborne announced that “we’re all in this together”?
    Well it seems that even the Right wing press have found that difficult to swallow…

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9247986/house-lords-peers-pay-rise/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11769736/Peer-claims-300-a-day-in-expenses-to-walk-200-yards-to-work-at-House-of-Lords.html

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/936434/house-of-lords-pay-rise-peers-parliament

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/30/labour-peer-never-spoke-house-of-lords-claims-50000-expenses

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaries_of_Members_of_the_United_Kingdom_Parliament

    Contrast that with:

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/02/benefits-freeze-leaves-a-third-of-claimants-with-100-to-live-on-a-month

    https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-citizens-advice-works/media/press-releases/nearly-half-of-benefit-claimants-hit-by-the-benefits-freeze-cant-afford-essential-bills/

    https://www.bigissue.com/latest/child-poverty-in-the-uk-will-hit-a-record-high-in-2019/

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/25/food-bank-network-hands-out-record-16m-food-parcels-in-a-year

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  42. The current form of ‘Digital by default’ Benefits system, in the shape of Universal Credit, is a shambles, but worryingly there is more of this to come by the Digitization of the Welfare State:

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/27/britain-welfare-state-shadowy-tech-consultants-universal-credit

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/14/fears-rise-in-benefits-system-automation-could-plunge-claimants-deeper-into-poverty

    https://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2019/10/14/surveillance-capitalism-comes-to-the-dole/

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  48. My new UC claim was going to plan, or so I thought. I had received my first payment a couple of days early as it was due Easter weekend, and it went into my bank, minus the housing element, but that was ok because the Housing Benefit would be continuing to pay my rent directly to the landlord, so I was told by the UC Case Manager who had rung me from Stockport on 22nd March to tell me so, and told me to go into my UC account and make a “Change” to my Housing details and select “No Housing costs” because my local Council were going to continue paying it and it’s not unusual, she assured me, it happens quite often, and if I didn’t change it it would be getting paid twice by both HB and UC. Who was I to know any different? All ok until I got a letter yesterday on 15th April from HB informing me that my claim for HB ended on March 14th. So I sent a message on my UC Journal to the Case Manager in Stockport who rang me saying she couldn’t understand why they’d done that and it must have been closed in error and I should go see them right away. So off I went to the Housing Benefit office and told them the story. The adviser there had his head in his hands when he said “I can’t believe she said that”, “you’ve been given the wrong information and we only pay HB for Pensioners using UC to claim Pension Credits, that’s the only time it happens, everyone else gets rent paid by UC, and if they haven’t paid it that’s because you selected ‘No Housing Costs’.” So I entered words to that effect on my Journal message to Case Manager but this time no one got back to me so I made a” Change” again by altering my housing details and uploading all my rent evidence and ID all over again, except this time in the form of crappy phone photos of relevant documents instead of the original scans they had been provided with. So now I have to make a rent payment out of the money I had borrowed from UC to live on for first 5 weeks, as my rent is normally paid by HB to landlord on 17th of each month and I’ll keep it like that for sake of continuity meaning it’s due tomorrow, and so basically I’ll be £320 out of pocket plus HB told me they had overpaid my rent by £34 that I will be asked to pay that back. So overall I’m £354 out of pocket. To make things even more of a pain my Banking app won’t let me set up a Standing Order so I’m going to have to trail into town again today to the Bank to set that up to pay my rent, and just hope UC pay me tbe full amount on my next payment that’s due on May 7th if they’ve accepted the evidence I’ve resubmitted. . What a bloody farce! Universal Shambles.

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    • So now the UC team in my Jobcentre have rejected the photo evidence I uploaded because I only sent the front and last pages of my Tenancy Agreement, i.e. the relevant parts that show my name and address, the amount of rent, and my signature, which is not good enough, they want every page if the entirev7 oage agreement, why I don’t know. Also one photo I uploaded was blurred, and there was a discreoancy between the rent being 4 weekly that I selected and the amount shown being calendar monthly. So I’m doing it all over again in tbe morning with the help of my Restart Adviser (I’m still required to attend Restart even though I have Fit notes saying I’m not fit for work and I’m not currently obliged to do any jobsearch). What I want to know is why can’t the already existing Housing information and rent details simply be transferred /shared from Housing Benefit to Universal Credit so that none of this shite is necessary? Why can’t two departments or agencies communicate, Local Authority and DWP?

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      • Send them a Cease & Desist letter. !! The DWP will have to get their lawyers in. Let’s waste the DWP’s time !!

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        • It’s becoming very stressful just to successfully make a claim for UC and get it all set up with the correct Housing details and the right amount of money being paid. I need to get this sorted and in place for the next payment so I don’t fall behind with the rent, I’ve already forked out £320 this month to cover it out if the money i borrowed off the DWP to live on for first 5 unpaid weeks. I’ve now got about £170 left to last 3 weeks for food, toiletries, cat food , Water, so should just about do it. By time next Electricity, phone and Council Tax are due i should have been paid again in May. It’s fking stressful though, and I’m on the Sick, meant to be resting.

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          • So like a medical test trev !! If you can run about you can work & you are not sick.

            It seems by the news it is so simple to go on the Sick with millions having no problems getting benefits without medicals, GP’s letters or anything else. The ones who are at the bottom are the REAL sick & disabled people.

          • I got turned down for PIP but am now waiting for WCA, probably sometime in June the Jobcentre said due to backlog. In meantime, both the Tories (Hunt and Sunak) and New Labour (Liz Kendall) have announced their intentions of hounding Sick people off of Benefits by forcing them to seek work. No specific details yet but the general conversation seems to be primarily aimed at targeting Mentally ill younger people.

  49. Trev this is mad! Firstly I didn’t realise you’d finally gone down the sickness route (and I don’t blame you) . As an ex union officer I would suggest you appeal the no pip decision they reject everyone first time. Od also suggest contacting the CAB or any welfare advice centres in your area. And when ask to describe how your illness affects your life think of the worst days and describe that. As to the UC , it must vary according to areas! I had no photo ID, and proved my identity with birth certificate, but I also had wage slips and stuff to back up. As to tenancy, when I first came here I was at my daughter’s, but I proved my ID to the housing association and my rent went through fine, though the first work coach I had insisted I would only be paid LHA rate even though social tenants get it in full. Thinking of you

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  50. Off topic but I have finally managed to get more hours with my current employer. My arthritis sciatica and degenerative discs disease aren’t improving and now I’m getting what I think is hip pain. I’m now 60. My new job is janitor in the bus station and involves cleaning up lots of pigeon and gull “guano”. I asked my work coach about any free computer courses I could do as I now have my own laptop. She pointed me in the direction of Learn Direct. Problem was to release funding I’d have to complete coursework showing I knew how to fill in an application form, how to behave at interviews, how to write a CV and how to sustain employment (I sustained 13 years with the school and nearly 2 in my current employer)
    I learnt you have to put your name on the application form and also to sustain employment , you should have a bath or shower every day, and clean your teeth, and wear clean clothes and keep your hair clean! I gave up when I read, “if you’re job involves”, translated if you are job involves. Should be if your job involves. That sort of error on an application form could cost you the job. I let rip at my work coach and said e wouldn’t be doing it and showed her why. She was horrified at the “course” content and said fine. Trev I’ll be thinking of you

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