It’s time to halt Universal Credit
This week sees a major change to the delivery of benefits to claimants in Rutherglen and Cambuslang.
The Tory government’s much discredited Universal Credit system has been introduced in our area following pilots in a few local authorities around the UK.
Universal Credit is a new benefit to support those who are out of work or in work but on a low income. It replaces some of the benefits and tax credits that claimants may currently be entitled to including housing benefit, child tax credit, income support, working tax credit and income based benefits such as job seekers allowance (JSA,) and employment and support allowance (ESA).
The design and roll out of this new benefit has been far from smooth. A wide range of politicians, charities and other organisations have called for the roll out to be paused, or even halted altogether. These calls were reinforced by the Scottish Parliament last week and I backed the call for a halt in the process when I spoke in a debate on this issue.
One of the glaring flaws of the Universal Credit roll out process is the length of time it will take for claimants to receive their first payment, anywhere from six to 12 weeks. This can expose claimants to serious financial jeopardy.
In response to increasing pressure, not least from several Tory MPs, the UK Government announced that they will ensure that claimants who required it could get advances, to be paid back over several months.
That is nothing more than a sticking plaster approach to that particular aspect of the system. It offers a loan to people instead of the benefit they are entitled to and forces them into repayments that will cause financial hardship.
The reality is that the design and implementation of the Universal Credit system has been fraught with issues every step of the way because an important factor appears to be missing from the scope of the project – the lived experience of those who this significant change was about to impact.
Apart from the disturbing length of time that claimants are expected to wait for their first payment, the housing benefit element in the UK Government scheme is no longer paid directly to landlords. Claimants were expected to get the housing benefit to landlords themselves.
As a result many have fallen into arrears and a spiral of debt, with many turning to payday or doorstep lenders.
The level of rent arrears for council tenants in the new system is at least two-and-a-half times that of those in receipt of housing benefit. Scottish local authorities are having to put millions of pounds aside to deal with the impending impact of this roll out.
This project is not just about simplifying the benefits system. This policy was introduced as part of the Tory austerity project to cut £12 billion from the welfare bill.
It should not be for the Scottish Government to continually plug the gaps left by UK welfare reforms, or paper over the cracks of this Universal Credit debacle. Nonetheless, the Scottish Government has invested over £350 million supporting low income families against the worst of the UK welfare reforms.
This government is also committed to restoring housing benefit for 18-21 year-olds and we will also use what flexibilities we have negotiated with the UK Government over the system to provide Scottish recipients with more frequent payments, fortnightly instead of monthly, and for the housing element to be paid directly to all landlords.
So-called “full service” roll out of Universal Credit would bring untold misery to hundreds of thousands of families and individuals across Scotland and the UK. It should be halted immediately until the glaring flaws in both systems and processes have been rectified.
Better still, all welfare provision should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament where we will guarantee a Scottish social security system that treats people with dignity and respect.
Universal Credit system has been fraught with issues every step of the way