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MSE News: Universal credit - Most claimants unprepared, Citizens Advice says

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"Most people on benefits who are out of work feel ill-prepared for the switch to universal credit, according to new research from Citizens Advice..."
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Universal credit: Most claimants unprepared, Citizens Advice says

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Universal credit: Most claimants unprepared, Citizens Advice says

Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.
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Not Buying it 2015!
The whole thing is descending into chaos, and as it has 'been red flagged' (by the government auditors) and seen as unlikely to succeed in it's present format, as the IT system cannot cope, then it may be that the whole thing will have to changed.
Lin
it`s time now that the people actually woke up and smelled the coffee ( well those who can afford the coffee )
You get the same amount just in a lump sum. Where is the issue?
Those that work that get paid monthly have the same issues!
I haven't been paid weekly since a cash in hand job as a teenager and I'm in my forties now. Monthly income is the norm.
I know one of the reasons why Local Housing Allowance was switched to being paid directly to tenants was to improve their readiness for employment by taking responsibility for their own personal budget. Perhaps this is a reason why UC is following a monthly path - to mimic most employment income? I don't know, just musing.
At the end of the day, the recipient receives the same sum of money for the period.
:A
UC sounds like a dogs dinner in terms of its implementation. However, the original concept was a sound one - making benefit payments simpler and quicker by rolling a number of separate benefits into a single payment, cutting down on fraud and error.
Currently there are 50+ benefits, credits and allowances to administer, with some of the systems not integrated with each other that allows these errors to fester.
Plus all the staff the state pays to administrate them.
As someone on here said before, if it was the other way around and UC was being split into 6 benefits: where some benefits were to dealt with by all the different councils in the UK and others dealt with by various other government offices, we would say what a waste of taxpayers money that was, to be funding all those extra staff.
The idea of paying UC monthly is because UC will be all the income based benefits for those of working age. When claimants get off UC, they will no doubt have a job where they are paid monthly and UC will have prepared them for this.
Read the sticky on the House Buying, Renting & Selling board.
In fact, I don't think UC goes far enough - every benefit should be rolled up into one single monthly payment. Also, council tax and benefits should be on the same system, too, instead of the split between central and local government.
Currently, a benefit claimant can identify their entitlements using an online benefit wizard so can get a single overview of what they should receive in five minutes - then they have to go off and apply for a handful or more separate forms to various separate bodies that get paid at different periods across the month.
It's a shame that all the benefits, allowances and credits can't be applied for online at the same time, held as a single record that warrants a single monthly payment.