Universal Credit helps nobody but loan sharks

A National Audit Office report does not hold back in its criticism of the Conservative government's implementation of Universal Credit (UC). It details the hardship of claimants who may have to wait six weeks for their payments to come through, that payments are sometimes incomplete and that there is practically no support. There are doubts about

the DWP’s expected savings. Universal Credit currently costs £699 per claim, which is four times as much as the DWP intends for it to cost when the systems are fully developed, the report said.

Local and national bodies, as well as claimants, showed the NAO evidence of people suffering hardship during the rollout of the full UC service. The report said: “These have resulted from a combination of issues with the design of Universal Credit and its implementation. The department has found it difficult to identify and track those who it deems vulnerable. It has not measured how many Universal Credit claimants are having difficulties because it does not have systematic means of gathering intelligence from delivery partners.”

The report added: “The department does not accept that Universal Credit has caused hardship among claimants, because it makes advances available, and it said that if claimants take up these opportunities hardship should not occur. However in its survey of full service claimants, published in June 2018, the department found that four in ten claimants that were surveyed were experiencing financial difficulties.”

[from Inside Housing's report]

As an Eye on Wales investigation into loan sharks warned, vulnerable people, especially parents of young children, feel they have nowhere else to turn. Food banks help, but they do not pay the rent or utilities bills. There is already evidence from England where UC has been rolled out that loan sharks are taking advantage. Because victims tend to be reluctant to come forward for fear of physical reprisals, that evidence may understate the extent of people's indebtedness to unlicensed money-lenders.

I hope that the Liberal Democrat leadership will confess its errors while in coalition in accepting UC without question, and vigorously campaign against this flawed and heartless system.