{"id":18902,"date":"2019-09-23T11:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T10:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=18902"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:55:33","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:55:33","slug":"unite-survey-reveals-the-true-human-cost-of-this-so-called-benefit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=18902","title":{"rendered":"Universal Discredit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On one day in May, the free paper, Metro, gave readers a surprise. \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Universal Credit Uncovered\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 announced the headline in all caps, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098o\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Uncovered\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 designed as detective\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spy glass.<\/p>\n

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But what looked like a hard-hitting expose at first glance was in fact \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if you read the small print in the corner \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an \u00e2\u20ac\u0098advertisement feature from the Department of Work Pensions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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The four-page spread, part of a DWP campaign that cost the taxpayer more than \u00c2\u0141200,000, claimed to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bset the record straight\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 on Universal Credit. But all it did \u00e2\u20ac\u201c besides eliciting dozens of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was highlight the welfare reform\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s abject failures.<\/p>\n

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In fact, that very same day, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty Philip Alston published a report that slammed \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the severe hardship\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Universal Credit has wrought.<\/p>\n

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It was also the same day MPs heard evidence of women on Universal Credit selling sex just to survive.<\/p>\n

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Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own exclusive research on Universal Credit, which includes a survey of more than 1,000 Universal Credit claimants, sheds light on the misery facing those who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found themselves signed onto the welfare reform.<\/p>\n

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The survey found over 75 per cent, said their experience of Universal Credit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which rolls several benefits, such as housing benefit, jobseeker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allowance and child tax credit into one \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has been unambiguously \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. A significant majority of Universal Credit claimants said they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d skipped meals and could not afford basics such as clothing, transport, or utility bills, with 78 per cent reporting they relied on support from family and friends just to survive.<\/p>\n

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Unite has highlighted the many design flaws built into Universal Credit, the most devastating of which is the five-week wait period before claimants receive their first payment. Left with nothing, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re forced to beg for an advance from the DWP. But since the advance is only a loan, claimants are pushed into debt from the very outset.<\/p>\n

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Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s survey found that nearly half said that Universal Credit was what first put them into debt, while an additional 30 per cent said it placed them even further into debt.<\/p>\n

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One survey respondent said the debt this advance placed them under led them to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bspiral into depression and anxiety\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 while another said they were straight away \u00e2\u20ac\u015bleft in rent arrears\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and \u00e2\u20ac\u015bserved with an eviction notice\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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And while the government pledged that Universal Credit would make households better off, Unite has found the exact opposite. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because the Universal Credit system institutes cuts as a fundamental part of its design.<\/p>\n

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Benefit rates have been frozen and work allowances slashed since 2016. While the family element in tax credits has been removed, child tax credits have also been limited.<\/p>\n

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The Resolution Foundation estimated that working families on average will be \u00c2\u0141625 a year worse off than in the previous system, and single parents will be hit particularly hard. As for the DWP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s claim that Universal Credit \u00e2\u20ac\u0098makes work pay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s research has found instead that it harms working people the most. For every \u00c2\u01411 a low-paid person on Universal Credit earns, 63p is clawed back \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a tax far beyond the 45 per cent top rate of tax levied on the highest earners.<\/p>\n

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Part-time work that suits those who care for children or relatives is robbed from Universal Credit claimants, many of whom are forced to show the DWP they are seeking to increase their hours or enhance pay \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or else face being sanctioned.<\/p>\n

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And if their employer submits their pay late, or if pay dates clash with Universal Credit assessment periods \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as they often do \u00e2\u20ac\u201c entitlements are slashed.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen I started work, the DWP made the assumption that I was earning the same amount every month as the first month,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 one respondent wrote. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI was with an agency \u00e2\u20ac\u201c things got messy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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But the greatest collateral damage in the Universal Credit war waged against ordinary families are children. Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s survey found that 79 per cent of parents found it hard to make ends meet during the school holidays.<\/p>\n

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Nearly 70 per cent of respondents said they skip meals while 41 per cent have to use food banks.<\/p>\n

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To highlight the issue of holiday hunger, Unite Community staged a national day of action on August 2 to stop Universal Credit.<\/p>\n

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In 63 separate events in England and Wales, campaigners took to the streets to protest the shocking rise of children in families claiming Universal Credit going hungry during the holidays because they are not able to receive free school meals.<\/p>\n

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Unite Community set up a number of holiday schemes this year, and like longer running projects in Devon and Norwich have become massively popular.<\/p>\n

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But Unite believes such projects, though critical in offering solidarity to struggling families, can only be part of the solution as the situation becomes increasingly dire.<\/p>\n

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Although Universal Credit will not be fully rolled out until 2023, each year the number of claimants doubles. And while the government claims there will be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098managed migration\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of people onto UC, more and more people are being forced to sign on and drop their legacy benefits if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve experienced any change in circumstances \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even something as innocuous as a change in mobile number.<\/p>\n

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This under-the-radar rollout of Universal Credit has seen the number of claimants surge from 1m in 2018 to 2.3m now. Shockingly, over a third of these are in employment, belying the notion that work always pays.<\/p>\n

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Unite head of community Liane Groves said that Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s research again highlights the need to scrap Universal Credit entirely.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUniversal Credit is causing misery and suffering as the survey results clearly show,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHundreds of thousands of children in the UK are not being fed properly because their parents don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the money to make ends meet. Unite is demanding that social security payments are sufficient to provide families with enough money to buy healthy food for their children.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Worried UC will affect you?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n