Universal Credit full service roll-out by postcode area Full service Universal Credit is a means-tested benefit for working-age people (who have not reached Pension Credit age) who are in or out of work. It will eventually replace the following legacy benefits for working-age claimants: Child Tax Credit Housing Benefit Income-based Jobseeker s Allowance Income-related Employment and Support Allowance Income Support Working Tax Credit At the time of writing, full service Universal Credit is available in the following postcode areas: Lowestoft IP19 1, NR32, NR33, NR34 4 Beccles NR34 0, NR34 7, NR34 8, NR34 9 Bungay NR35 1, NR35 2 Bury St. Edmunds Halesworth IP19 0, IP19 8, IP19 9 IP29 4, IP29 5, IP30, IP31 1, IP31 2, IP31 3, IP32, IP33 Haverhill CB9 0, CB9 1, CB9 7, CB9 8, CB9 9 Southwold IP18 Sudbury CO10 0, CO10 1, CO10 2, CO10 3, CO10 5, CO10 7, CO10 8, CO10 9 In areas of Suffolk where full service Universal Credit has yet to be introduced, people were only able to claim live service Universal Credit if they satisfied more than twenty gateway conditions. This effectively limited entitlement to new claims from single jobseekers without dependent children. People who did not satisfy the gateway conditions were still able to claim legacy benefits. When full service Universal Credit is introduced, the live service gateway conditions are removed and many more working-age people find themselves falling within the Universal Credit system when they make a new claim to benefits. This includes: Jobseekers People in work or self-employment People with dependent children People who are unable to work due to illness or disability Carers and foster carers 16 and 17-year olds without parental support Care leavers
People on existing benefits and tax credits, who live in a full service area, may also need to claim Universal Credit if their circumstances change. Not all changes of circumstances trigger the need to claim Universal Credit. Full service Universal Credit is scheduled to roll-out in postcode areas covered by the following Jobcentre Plus offices: April 2018 (date TBC) Ipswich Ipswich MyGo May 2018 (delayed from February 2018) Stowmarket October 2018 (delayed from June 2018) Felixstowe Leiston Woodbridge December 2018 (delayed from September 2018) Mildenhall Newmarket From 1 January 2018, it is not possible to make a live service Universal Credit claim in the areas listed above. All new claimants must claim old-style legacy benefits, until full service Universal Credit rolls out in that postcode area.
Online claims and rural communication Making a maintaining a Universal Credit claim requires regular access to the internet and/or a mobile phone. These figures may be slightly out of date, but the 2016 Community Action Suffolk Rural Services Survey reported that broadband coverage in Suffolk was poor in 51% of 303 rural parishes and unavailable in 8%. Mobile phone coverage was poor in 48% of 286 rural parishes and unavailable in 9%. The claim process 1. Claimant creates an online account this involves setting up a user name, password, security questions and supplying an e-mail address. A code is sent to this e-mail address and must be entered within one hour or the online registration will fail. Claimant decides their preferred contact method text or e-mail. 2. Claimant makes an online claim telephone support (the assisted digital service ) is available from the Jobcentre Plus and home visits in exceptional circumstances. There are no paper claim forms. 3. Claimant verifies identity at the end of the claim process or phones the Universal Credit helpline to arrange an ID verification interview at local Jobcentre Plus office (if unable to verify identity online) 4. Claimant is sent a text or e-mail stating their online account has been updated. The update asks them to phone the Universal Credit helpline to arrange initial interview with work coach. Failure to do so will end the claim. 5. Claimant agrees and signs a claimant commitment at Jobcentre Plus. A separate interview may be required before this to provide evidence to support the claim (ID etc) 6. Jobcentre Plus contacts landlord to verify tenancy details (if housing costs element is claimed) 7. Decision is made on claim 8. Claim is put into payment After the claim is made The Work Coach and case manager will contact the claimant by posting to dos in the claimant s online journal. A message is sent via the claimant s preferred contact method (text or e-mail) telling them that their journal has been updated. The claimant must then log in to their account to find out what they need to do. Failure to act could result in a sanction or the claim being suspended and then closed for failure to provide information.
Payment delays Universal Credit is paid monthly in arrears and most claimants wait at least six weeks for their first payment. The DWP s own figures state that one in four claimants waits longer than six weeks. The Work and Pensions Committee report 26/10/17 argued that there are compelling reasons to reduce the wait to one month, including - o More than half of low and middle income families have no savings, and two thirds have less than a month's worth and o Half of people earning 10,000 or less per year are not paid monthly and many households simply do not have the resources to get by for six weeks, or in a minority of cases far longer, without resorting to desperate measures A recent Smith Institute report (on Southwark and Croydon two of first three Universal Credit digital areas) found that claimants almost universally experienced financial hardship as a result of transitioning onto universal credit - notably as a result of the significant delays to payment Most claimants are currently subject to seven waiting days, during which there is no entitlement to Universal Credit: the standard allowance, elements for children, disabled children and carers, and housing costs for rent. 64% of all claimants have experienced 7 waiting days with no entitlement, rising to 75% of single claimants with no children (DWP report: Universal Credit Waiting Days: May 2016 to June 2017). Waiting days are being removed from February 2018. Financial hardship and food bank usage A Trussell Trust report dated 7 November 2017 showed foodbanks in areas where full Universal Credit had been in effect for six months or more, had a 30% average increase in usage compared to the year before. This compares to a 12% increase in usage in areas where the full service model had not rolled out. The report also found that benefit delays accounted for 43% of all referrals and, of those referrals, 45% were waiting for a first payment of Universal Credit. East Suffolk foodbank shut from 23 October 2017, after their parent charity Signpost East Suffolk was unable to secure grant funding. Interim support is available in Lowestoft from the Salvation Army and ACT and in Halesworth and Beccles from the Waveney Foodbank. Short-term advance of Universal Credit are available. From January 2018, these can be up to 100% of the claimant s notional monthly entitlement. Advances must be repaid over 12 months, at up to 40% of the claimant s standard allowance. The DWP s Universal Credit Test and Learn Evaluation: Families September 2017 found that only 23% of families on UC could keep up to date with bills and financial commitments without difficulty. 9% of families on UC in social housing used loans from doorstep lenders to cover essential living expenses (food), bills and rent.
Housing Costs Element and rent arrears For people subject to 7 waiting days, one week of rent arrears is built into the system. For everyone else, there is still at least a six week wait for one month s money. Many claimants wait longer for Housing Costs Element towards their rent, due to administrative delays at the Jobcentre Plus or difficulties obtaining proof of rent from the claimant s landlord. In Lowestoft, we have been told it is not uncommon for claimants to be paid the Housing Costs Element three or four months after the date of claim. The Housing Costs Element is paid to tenant by default, not to landlord. Managed Payments can be arranged for tenants in rent arrears, whereby the Housing Costs Element is paid directly to the landlord. Practitioners have experienced considerable difficulty persuading Work Coaches at the Jobcentre Plus to set these up. In September, the Work and Pensions Committee reported, Evidence from the first three universal credit boroughs shows they have amassed 8 million in rent arrears, with more than 2,500 tenants in London claiming universal credit so far behind with their rent they are at risk of eviction from their homes. The DWP s own research shows that 82% of Universal Credit claimants in rent arrears had not been in rent arrears in their current accommodation before claiming UC (Universal Credit Test and Learn Evaluation: Families September 2017) A smaller survey by National Federations of ALMOs Pause for Thought - Measuring the impact of welfare reform on tenants and landlords 2017 survey results found that 73% of tenants on UC were in rent arrears, compared to 31% of the general tenant population Residential Landlords Association (RLA) report 'Welfare Reform and Universal Credit: The impact on the private rented sector showed rent arrears for Universal Credit was one of the leading reasons for attempting to regain possession of a property (64% of landlords reported this), despite UC being claimed by just over 10% of working-age benefit claimants Local example: IBC (live service): 90 UC cases 80 in rent arrears (Total debt 39306-491 average) Local example: Waveney (full service): 328 UC cases (Total debt 274093 1198 average) Local example: Lowestoft landlord with 400 properties: 98 UC tenants 18 evicted - 41,683 arrears - 425 average) Housing costs for 18-21 year olds 18-21 year olds subject to all work-related requirements are not entitled to Housing Costs Element. There are exceptions.
Conditionality and sanctions More than 90% of claimants have some level of work-related requirements placed on them, with the risk of sanctions of up to 3 years for non-compliance. DWP statistics (September 2017) show only 53,700 of the 610,000 UC claimants have no work-related requirements. 67,100 are in work with a requirement to increase hours and earnings. All work-related requirements apply to more claimant groups than under old-style benefits. For example, people providing sick notes from their GP (after 14 days) and lone parents whose youngest child is age 3 or over, are placed in the all work-related requirements group, in the intensive work-search regime. Work Coaches have the discretion to restrict work-related requirements, but these restrictions are not set in the regulations. This is an area where it might be useful to raise GP awareness of the role of fit notes play in the Universal Credit system Unless restrictions apply, claimants are expected to spend 35 hours per week searching for work. Work-related requirements are notified to claimant via to dos in their online journal. All work search activity must be logged on the online journal. Work Coaches can access the journal. Claimants who have failed to demonstrate enough work-related activity will be referred for a sanction. DWP report: Jobseeker s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit sanctions: decisions made to March 2017 records there were 109,301 UC sanctions served in the period from 1/8/15-31/12/16 (at this point there were only 433,840 people claiming UC). The most recent figures from DWP show a 50% increase in sanctions in the six-month period to March 2017. Hardship payments are available to claimants who are sanctioned. Hardship payments have tougher qualifying conditions than for ESA or JSA (for example, the claimant must have complied with the requirement that led to the sanction). Universal Credit hardship payments are recoverable and must be paid back at 40% of the claimant s standard allowance. This effectively more than doubles the length of financial loss.
Self-employment Universal Credit uses a new definition of self-employment a trade, profession or vocation carried out in expectation of profit. People claiming Universal Credit as a self-employed person must attend a meeting with a case manager to prove they are in gainful self-employment. Even if they are registered with HM Revenues and Customs, they will not necessarily be accepted as self-employed for Universal Credit purposes. If they are not accepted as self-employed, their income will still be taken into account as employed earnings, but they will be subject to the level of conditionality that applies their claimant group. This could mean a requirement to spend 35 hours per week looking for work or face sanctions. Claimants accepted as gainfully self-employed, are asked report their self-employed earnings (all payments received by the business in that month, all deductions and permitted expenses) on the last day of each monthly assessment period, by telephone (during office hours 8am to 6pm). They must provide this information within 14 days of the assessment period coming to an end. Universal Credit is suspended if one monthly report is missed. Newly self-employed people may be allowed a start-up period of up to 12 months from the start of trading, during which their actual earned income is used in the Universal Credit calculation. Other self-employed claimants are subject to the Minimum Income Floor notional earnings figure based on their expected hours (normally 35 hours per week) multiplied by the National Minimum Wage (less notional deductions for tax and National Insurance) and converted into a monthly figure. This figure is used if their actual monthly self-employed earnings are lower. For most claimants, this will mean 1000+ notional monthly income is used for the benefit calculation, even if they have no profit from self-employment. Some self-employed claimants, who had topped up relatively low earnings with Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Housing Benefit will be much worse off under Universal Credit. Some self-employed claimants may have difficulty with the reporting requirements, as there is no option to do this by post or online.