Harshness of uc

calcotti

It’s bonkers isn’t it. I think you are right they just see a figure from HMRC with o explanation as to what it was. I think UC are reliant on a ESA returning a form to them confirming your ESA status. Why the computer systems can’t talk to each other is a mystery.

I don’t understand why they would want to know about employment in the previous 12 months, even if you’d had some, since UC payments are based on current income not past income.

fredandwilma

calcotti wrote: »

It’s bonkers isn’t it. I think you are right they just see a figure from HMRC with o explanation as to what it was. I think UC are reliant on a ESA returning a form to them confirming your ESA status. Why the computer systems can’t talk to each other is a mystery.

I don’t understand why they would want to know about employment in the previous 12 months, even if you’d had some, since UC payments are based on current income not past income.

I've no idea.

In my things to do list in my UC journal it says:

Confirm previous earnings from work.

In the 12 months before claiming Universal Credit, were there any gaps in your employment?

In the 12 months before you claimed Universal Credit did you earn below £430 a month at any time?

That's as far as i have gone with it as i don't want to end up submitting false information which is going to create even more problems?

My advice to anyone remotely considering 'naturally migrating' from ESA to UC is, just don't.

Nothing, especially your health, isn't worth the bus i've been thrown under.

w06

it may not be as bad as it seems. I've just checked my journal as what you said sounded familiar.

The day prior to my first assesment period ending i received the same questions, I'd been a PhD student for the 4 years prior to claiming and my ESA had ended the day i claimed UC, and so i asked via the journal to check I'd answered correctly.

The payment notice appeared next day, and then payment a week later. When you log into UC, on the page with several boxes (top left one being report a change) one that says payments appears bottom right.

huckster

Nothing to do with p45 as to why UC has asked for previous 12 month earnings.

UC computer is trying to understand previous history, to inform whether income is likely to be reported or not. There are people that work seasonally and therefore might not normally have income some months. Also people forget to advise of work and earnings.

You just provide the information, so when no income is received in say October, it sees you have advised you are not working and checks what you said about last year. It then draws conclusion that you will not have received any income and awards benefit based on no income.

With UC, you really have to log into your claim and just follow the process required.

calcotti

Thanks for the explanation huckster. In this case OP appears to have already told them he was on ESA. I agree that you have to do what you’re asked to do in order to try and speed up the claim but it would help if the requests were logical.

fredandwilma

w06 wrote: »

it may not be as bad as it seems. I've just checked my journal as what you said sounded familiar.

The day prior to my first assesment period ending i received the same questions, I'd been a PhD student for the 4 years prior to claiming and my ESA had ended the day i claimed UC, and so i asked via the journal to check I'd answered correctly.

The payment notice appeared next day, and then payment a week later. When you log into UC, on the page with several boxes (top left one being report a change) one that says payments appears bottom right.

Thanks w06.

Yes you were right, I've now received my award, (but not payment, obviously).

I've lost my disability premiums and with no transitional protection either, it's as i expected it to be.

Along with the advance i have to repay, I'm now almost 300 pounds a month, short of the payment on ESA.

I know people will come along and tell me it's alright, I'll receive backdated disability payments at some point in the future, this means very little to me. The loss of my disability premiums affects the quality of my life in the here and now, and there's no 'compensation' for that.

I require support now, not light years into the future?

As for answering those questions in the journal as if i've been working, I'm going to take further advice on that. For instance, if you say no, I didn't receive less than 430 pounds in any month before applying for UC, (because you haven't worked,) that could infer the answer to that question was actually yes, i received more than 430 pounds in any month before applying for UC, (you have worked). It's far too ambiguous.

I shall go to my MP regarding the loss of my disability premiums. They say they will take my case to EMV (for all the good that will do).

For now, I've been through an extremely stressful 6 months in total and it's now time to try and move on and make the best of a bad situation.

annandale

I've only just gone onto a journal. I was a live service claimant until around two weeks ago.

I'd advise people to get their mp in if they have a decent one. I've had to involve mine a few times now.

I don't think there was ever anything meant to be decent about uc. It's a shambles. Unless you get an in work allowance it acts as a complete dis incentive to work.

I'm probably going back to doing some work zero hours soon. I don't expect to get many hours and I'll be working for a pittance.

And the pressure on people to get a full time job. Of course people should be in work if they are able but it's harder than many of these work coaches realise.

Plus some people are sanction happy. Anyone read the story of the mp George Adams constituent. Sanctioned while in hospital having a heart attack

Sanctions are running at 9 times the national average for people on uc in my area

pmduk

TELLIT01 wrote: »

UC seems to be yet another example of a good idea, a single benefit which varies as the claimant's needs vary, which has been very badly implemented.

It was great until politicians (and senior civil servants) started working out how to use it to save money.

fredandwilma

annandale wrote: »

Plus some people are sanction happy. Anyone read the story of the mp George Adams constituent. Sanctioned while in hospital having a heart attack

Sanctions are running at 9 times the national average for people on uc in my area

No, It can't possibly be true?

After all, Ms MV said that Universal Credit was fit for purpose, and just insisted that all was well.

Reminds me of another story in the news at the moment.

Say what you believe and believe what you say, (regardless of whether or not it's true)?

annandale

My mental health has taken a battering since I went on uc. Being constantly threatened with sanctions for ridiculous reasons was just too much for me. Particularly as my mum was ill at the time

I had one very hostile work coach and they kept trying to allocate me to her. I've had to ask at least half a dozen times that they don't.

My mum was shocked at how some claimants are spoken to when she was in the job centre waiting for me last week.

The removal of the in work allowance for single people was a terrible decision

I hate being on uc and I am desperate to find enough hours to get me off it. I don't claim housing element so hopefully sooner rather than later.

There's someone called Alex Tiffin who was living on 96 quid a fortnight. His story went viral. It's a shambles.