Rubbing our noses in it

bonnie43uk

I had a good idea last night. Why dont they make all the unemployed people millionaires. They could then pay off any debts they make have. Not only that, it would energise the building trade (all the unemployed would want expensive patio's and swimming pools built), and they could employ immigrants to work for them. I can't believe the government haven't thought of this idea. I can think of lots and lots of other benefits this would have. This is probably the best idea I have ever had.

skintandscared_2

bonnie43uk wrote: »

I had a good idea last night. Why dont they make all the unemployed people millionaires. They could then pay off any debts they make have. Not only that, it would energise the building trade (all the unemployed would want expensive patio's and swimming pools built), and they could employ immigrants to work for them. I can't believe the government haven't thought of this idea. I can think of lots and lots of other benefits this would have. This is probably the best idea I have ever had.

Even better idea, make all the workers millionaires so they can give their jobs to the unemployed and let them take a turn.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

john539 wrote: »

I can't believe that.

So who is going to check Housing Benefit claims & documentation ?

As far as I know Universal Credit is a wrapper for a number of benefits, but they still need to be checked and for housing, this really must be done in area.

If you are on Universal Credit it won't be your local council. Your local council will no longer have anything to do with your claim as it will be Universal Credit and not Housing Benefit. There won't be a local office for you to pop into or a officer who is familiar with your claim that you can visit or phone.

The DWP are currently working with local authorities to define and agree their role, both throughout the migration to the Universal Credit and over the longer term. However you won't need teams of qualified benefit assessors to process benefit claims at a local level. There might be local visiting officers to visit the vulnerable or someone locally to verify and copy documents for forwarding on to whoever will be processing Universal Credit claims.

The language being used in all the correspondence between the DWP and Local Authorities is "...decommissioning the HB delivery service...".

Basically your local housing benefit office is being 'decommissioned'. This is being done gradually as people migrate to Universal Credit to 2017 when the migration should be complete.

Local Councils are already planning to scale down their Housing Benefit services as claims migrate to Universal Credit. Already this year the administration grant that the DWP give to Local Authorities has been cut and it will continue to be cut as local councils administer fewer and fewer Housing Benefit claims as they migrate to Universal Credit.

By 2017 your local Council will only administer your Local Council Tax Support claim. Housing Benefit would have been merged into a Universal Credit payment.

There are some 20,000 Housing Benefit jobs at risk. Administering the Local Council Tax Support scheme will keep some employed but not 20,000. Many Councils are having real problems recruiting staff as the service is being 'decommissioned' and the service over the next few years is winding down.

This is why many councils advertise for people on short term contracts because come 2017 the service will cease to exist.