MSE News: Universal credit trial begins today

Its not a trial its a Pathfinder. Trial implies it will be stopped if it doesn't work and it's only for claims in one area, not four.

Short article! Doesn't really tell a lot.

I hear that something called a 'mandatory reconsideration' is coming in today, where there is another stage of the process before you can appeal a DWP decision, as well as this pathfinder.

Has anyone heard anything about that? Have been wondering how far along it is and if it is national..

Good to see a discussion topic about social security in the social security section of the forum rather than lost in DT.

Since it's here, I'll post a link to a news report about those nasty, uncaring, job centre staff protesting about benefit cuts.

MSE_Helen wrote: »

"Universal credit, which replaces job seeker's allowance and other tax credits will be launched in four areas today.

Not strictly true. The job centre in Ashton-under-Lyne is the first to launch the Pilot Scheme for Universal Credit, today. Three more job centres in the North West - Oldham, Wigan and Warrington were to join Ashton, but the launch date has been postponed until July. Apparently the IT systems are nowhere near ready for any launch, and the Universal Credit Scheme is on the verge of disaster. Don't believe everything you read?




http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=pilot%20schemes%20for%20universal%20credit%20in%20ashton%2C%20warrington&source=newssearch&cd=1&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CDAQqQIoADAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmancunianmatters.co.uk%2Fcontent%2F290410218-crackpot%25E2%2580%2599-universal-credit-scheme-slammed-trade-union-leader-ashton-under-lyne-lau&ei=7Wd-UeSNIZC20QWtkYDICA&usg=AFQjCNENes9KBg8gDFZSSiRYqq8ldC1piw




Unable to post link to FT, article here -

ft.com > UK >
Politics & Policy



Last updated: April 28, 2013 7:51 pm
Revolution comes to town with universal credit pilot

By Sarah Neville, Public Policy Editor


A market town on the edge of the Pennine hills will on Monday be the focus for the government’s welfare revolution, when a job centre in Ashton-under-Lyne becomes the first to implement universal credit.
Iain Duncan Smith, work and pensions secretary, believes the scheme to roll six benefits into a single payment will spur people back into employment and has made its implementation a personal mission.

Reducing the rate at which benefits are withdrawn when people find a job, so making it worthwhile to work for even a few hours, will make it easier for people to move into the labour market, Mr Duncan Smith believes.


But as the process begins, there is evidence that the original timetable for implementation has been revised, and it is thought that officials are still making changes to the technology that will underpin the scheme. Philip Langsdale, information chief at the Department for Work and Pensions, who had been leading the programme, died just before Christmas and the past 18 months have seen other significant personnel changes.
Perhaps the most challenging task, a computer link between HM Revenue and Customs and the DWP, is designed to ensure that changes in claimants’ circumstances are logged immediately, but it will be only partially tested in the Ashton “pathfinder”. Although local businesses have been pushed to move to this “real-time information” model, not all have done so and data will still need to be processed manually, officials have said.
In the original plan for the pilot, three other northern towns were to have joined Ashton in the vanguard. Yet, in an announcement made just before the Easter weekend, it emerged that the launch date for these three would be postponed until July.
Ministers and Whitehall officials alike emphasise the government’s determination to ensure no risks are taken. The scheme will be introduced in “a slow, controlled and safe manner”, Lord Freud, welfare reform minister, said on Sunday.
Yet, at one stage, a more ambitious approach appears to have been envisaged.
In November 2011, Mr Duncan Smith said 1m claimants were expected to be receiving universal credit by the end of April 2014.
However, the October national rollout will now start with a single job centre or a “cluster” of them in each region. In a letter to local authority chief executives in December 2012, seen by the Financial Times, Hilary Reynolds, who had just been appointed programme director for universal credit but moved on after four months in the role, stated: “For the majority of local authorities the impact of [universal credit] during the financial year 2013-14 will be limited.”
In March, in answer to a parliamentary question, Mark Hoban, employment minister, said everyone would be claiming the benefit by 2017.
Liam Byrne, shadow work and pensions secretary, said on Sunday that given “the delays to its introduction”, evidence suggested this timetable was “no longer plausible”.