We will fight Universal Credit

Start by thinking of the film I, Daniel Blake. You may be next.

The Westminster Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) first introduced Universal Credit (UC) in 2013.

They had already been talking about it for three years by then.

I sighed miserably and was overwhelmed with a mixture of real anger, frustration and, yes, despair. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that this crazed set of changes would not be good for the residents of this constituency.

Citizens Advice Scotland chair, Rory Mair, has said that “universal credit has major delivery and design flaws which risk hurting families instead of helping them. These include long waits for payments that push people into crisis and debt, all the while battling a highly complicated process with little support”.

Now it’s coming to us. In the next roll-out in October, Hamilton takes the current five areas to over 50 so prepare for – a wait.

The time taken to move from one of the six current meanstested benefits and tax credits to UC is averaging around six to seven weeks.

In fact, the great volunteers at the Hamilton Food Bank tell me that they have visitors who have been waiting for 12 weeks.

This is completely scandalous and yet another example of the sheer inhumanity of the so-called ‘welfare reforms’.

By the way, “UC will be paid monthly in arrears. Payments will not be backdated to take into account any delays in you making your claim.” You can only apply online and you must apply for Council Tax Reduction separately.

How will people pay rent, feed the kids, pay for the family’s energy? Don’t look to the DWP for any help or support. The Scottish Government will do what it can – as it already has done with the wretched Bedroom Tax – but with the budget cuts coming from London, it’s not going to be easy.

When the Scottish Government asked the DWP if we could use devolved powers so as not to apply the abolition of the housing element of UC to 18- to 21-year-olds, we were told it wasn’t possible.

An alternative request from the Scottish Government to add UC claimants in Scotland as an exemption to the regulations was also denied. The UK Government argued that it could not make an exemption on a geographic basis alone.

We desperately need some kind of additional help for people.

In the two Scottish councils with most experience of UC, about 82 per cent of people receiving it are in arrears. South Lanarkshire Council will have to put aside £4m to mitigate the costs of the roll-out. That could have been money for schools, housing, health or infrastructure improvements.

The tangle over Disability Living Allowance (DLA) confuses the whole picture even more.

Families with a disabled child may receive support through the disability element of child tax credit, currently worth £57 a week. Under UC, that support is to be provided through ‘disability additions’ within household benefit entitlements but the proposal is to cut the help in half to just £28 a week.

For such families in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, that means a loss of around £1500 a year, pushing more people below the poverty line. The change will cost families with a child born with a disability up to £24,000 by the time she or he reaches 16 years old. Twice that if there are two disabled children.

That’s just one example. There are plenty more benefit cuts that will impact upon disabled children and adults including those currently in receipt of Employment Support Allowance and Severe Disability Allowance.

I apologise for setting out so much misery but people need to know and understand what is coming down the Tory lines – together, we will fight it, and ultimately we will win.

The tangle over Disability Living Allowance confuses the whole picture even more