Sunday 23 December 2018

Yet another example of how terrible Universal Credit is...

... it even fails on its own terms.

From the BBC:

The Universal Credit system leaves too many UK claimants with children facing a stark choice between turning down jobs or getting into debt, MPs warn.

The Work and Pensions Select Committee says the way parents have to pay for childcare up front, then claim it back afterwards is a "barrier to work"...

"Universal Credit claimants must pay for childcare up front and claim reimbursement from the department after the childcare has been provided. This can leave households waiting weeks or even months to be paid back.

"Many of those households will be in precarious financial positions which Universal Credit could exacerbate: if, for example, they have fallen into debt or rent arrears while awaiting Universal Credit payments. Too many will face a stark choice: turn down a job offer, or get themselves into debt in order to pay for childcare."


4 comments:

L fairfax said...

They should have done in one small part of the country, got it to work there and then put it nationwide.

Mark Wadsworth said...

LF, that is the bitter irony. They tried local trials first, it clearly didn't "work", but they rolled it out anyway.

Scroll down here.

But trial or not, it must be clear that making really poor people penniless for six weeks if they start work is a shit idea.

Another reason for universal basic income, makes no difference if you are in work or not, the money just comes in.

Bayard said...

"They tried local trials first, it clearly didn't "work", but they rolled it out anyway."

Reminds me of a story of my father's. When he was in the army, they were asked to try out Britain's answer to the Jeep, the Austin Champ. They discovered it was a death trap, far too likely to roll over, and rejected it, only to be told that that was the wrong answer and the cars had been ordered anyway.

Another version of the same attitude was a testing company that was told by one of its customers "I'm not paying you to fail the samples I send you".

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, that must be the answer.