Brexit is not the only show in town!

Universal Credit – a pause or an impasse?

It’s hard isn’t it, getting policy and practice to line up to make people’s lives better. Everyone is looking toward Brexit, and whilst it is important, it is not the only show in town. Brexit has our society polarised. Our nation split about what is right. Surely there’s little to argue about when it comes to Universal Credit? The policy of simplifying the system is on the button but the system as it is currently designed, and implemented is not working, it’s creating great suffering and hardship. It needs to change and quickly.

So, whilst I am very pleased to hear the Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd announce the Government have decided to delay the roll out of Universal Credit to a further 3 million people in the United Kingdom – because it’s not working and causing hardship – what about the 3 million people[1] already receiving Universal Credit in the United Kingdom?  Alongside the pause let’s make it an urgent priority to get it right for the 3 million existing claimants of Universal Credit many of whom are suffering hardship right now, otherwise it’s just an impasse and we will end up with more of the same.

We need a system response that works.

I know I’m banging the drum about Universal Credit again, this is not my first article on the subject, but until we have a system that works for everyone I’m going to keep on making a noise. I spend a lot of my time with the people for whom the Universal Credit system isn’t working, I rarely come across people for whom it’s been a roaring success although I am told such people do exist. But even if the people I’m talking to are in the minority, they are still suffering and that’s not good enough for me, I want change.

I hear politicians, journalists and commentators talking about Universal Credit claimants visiting foodbanks as if a foodbank is somehow part of the statutory welfare offer.   This just isn’t right. A dose of reality is needed. Let me be clear, foodbanks are not part of a statutory welfare offer.  Foodbanks are primarily voluntary organisations, often community based and delivered on a shoestring. They are almost exclusively volunteer led and rely on donations of food from the public.  They are not, cannot and should not be a system response to a welfare benefit system that is failing.  They have evolved to mitigate in some meaningful way against the huge and destructive impact of the Universal Credit system and should not even be here! It is wonderful that good people are taking it into their own hands to respond to this crisis in society, but wouldn’t it be even better if they were freed up to use their skills, talents and time to do so much more than literally keeping people off the bottom?

What’s the real issue with the system?

When we say the Universal Credit system doesn’t work, what do we really mean? Well for a start, the BBC reports analysis by the Resolution Think Tank[2] that suggests almost 60% of Universal Credit claimants are worse off by around £48.00 per week and further, the latest analysis at Citizens Advice [3]shows that single disabled people can face losses as large as £300 a month — even more than the losses of £200 a month widely reported for other groups. How can this be? I’d say that’s a real issue – wouldn’t you?

We all know there is a definite cost attached to being disabled[4]- additional care costs, aids and adaptations to the home to be bought, transport costs for even the shortest of journeys, personal care assistants to employ, often additional dietary considerations and complimentary therapies to purchase. Being disabled is an expensive business and yet we are developing societal acceptance of a welfare system which, on average, leaves a single disabled person facing losses as large as £300 a month. What would that loss mean to you, personally, if you found yourself disabled and unable to maintain any quality of life and progressively becoming socially isolated? You wouldn’t like it. Your ability to have a life well lived would be more difficult.

Professor Philip Alston is the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (appointed by the Human Rights Council) visited the UK in December 2018 and strongly criticised Universal Credit for its various features which are “deemed to create unnecessary hardship, including the mandatory waiting period, the harshness of its sanctions, and digitisation[5]”. He noted a “disconnect between government perceptions and the testimony of front line workers and people affected by benefits changes”. This very closely mirrors my own experience of delivering advice services and campaigning for reform. I come up against policymakers and implementers with little or no understanding of the hardship ordinary people are experiencing.  I use the term “ordinary people” purposefully because we are not talking here about the work shy, or the benefit scroungers, but ordinary people like you and me, the working class who have, somehow, morphed in to the working poor. How could we let this happen?

With some focus, realism and commitment we can fix this.

This is a lot simpler than Brexit. How we move forward to resolve the welfare benefits system is also a fundamental test of our national identity, and of our approach to taking care of our citizens when they need us the most. We need to prioritise our energies, or we will come to regret it.  

Controversial as it might be, I feel the Brexit frenzy has deflected us from the internal economic reform needed to fix Universal Credit. Let’s get on it, be prepared to look back, and work together to add our voices to the call for change for the people who are suffering from the inadequacies of the Universal Credit system already, focusing on them, before we even think about pressing the play button again for the people who haven’t yet had the pleasure of making a Universal Credit claim.

So, I’m asking if you, like me, believe we need to quickly get to a system that’s fair and inclusive and that does not cause hardship, stigma or disadvantage to individuals, communities or society at large to bang your drum loudly, to shout and to demand change. And if you don’t know how to do this, what it looks like, or why we should care about achieving a fair society for all, with lives well lived, please get in touch with me, I’d love to talk to you. I might even show you what my team and I see every day – despair, lack of hope, poverty and disadvantage. If that sounds grim, it’s because it is. 

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-29-april-2013-to-8-november-2018

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46772901

[3] https://wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/some-disabled-people-are-set-to-lose-hundreds-of-pounds-a-month-because-of-universal-credit-22f940516e60

[4] https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/disabled-charges-cost-dwp-pip-benefits-transport-nightmare-debt-vulnerable-a8219146.html

[5] https://www.lgiu.org.uk/briefing/the-united-nations-special-rapporteur-on-extreme-poverty-and-human-rights-uk-visit/