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."

Universal Credit and Support for mortgage interest

From New Policy Institute:

Why is the safety net [Support for Mortgage Interest] less effective for owner-occupiers [than renters]? Firstly, “the Government believes that taxpayers should not in effect be helping people to acquire personal assets through any potential long-term rises in house prices.”

It is not clear whether this still applies when Help to Buy gives support for those acquiring personal assets.

And we might add, when taxpayers help Buy To Let landlords pay off their mortgages by subsiding rents.

Sneaky!

From the BBC:

Although Chancellor George Osborne abandoned cuts to tax credits in the Autumn, cuts to UC announced last summer will still go ahead.

From this April the amount that anyone on UC can earn before their benefits are cut will be reduced. This so-called Work Allowance will be £4,764 for those not claiming for housing costs, or £2,304 for those who do.

Once claimants earn above that amount, they lose 65p for every pound they are paid.

The Daily Mail on top form

From The Daily Mail:

The government’s flagship benefits overhaul is costing £225,000 per person to introduce, new figures show.

The much-delayed Universal Credit combining six benefits into one has so far cost £612million. Iain Duncan Smith once claimed 1million people be receiving the payments by April this year, but with just six months to go there were only 2,720 signed up.

The Universal Credit project has suffered a series of setbacks, with ministers forced to admit the target of having all new and existing claimants on Universal Credit by 2017 will be missed. Labour claimed that if the project had stayed o track the cost per person signed up by now would be only £612.

It must have had IDS experiencing a "Victor Meldrew moment" ....

surely becoming aware that  (a) some idiot had organised a staff attitudes survey amongst staff working on his "flagship project" [not of course to be confused with any other DWP "flagship project" like the Work Programme] and (b) then allowed the results to leak into the public domain  had our normally unflappable Secretary for Work and Pensions shouting "I don't believe it!" ....

One civil servant writes of "a near complete absence of anything that looks like strategic leadership in the programme". Another says: "There is a divisive culture of secrecy around current programme developments and very little in the way of meaningful messages for staff or stakeholders explaining what will happen and when."

Taking a direct swipe at managers, another civil servant says: "I have never worked somewhere where decision making was so apparently poor at senior levels … and communications from that level was totally nonexistent. This programme should be a case study for how not to engage with your people to get the most out of them."

Comments included: "After 29 years of service this has been the most soul-destroying work I have done," and: "There is too much dishonesty and no one ever admits to making a mistake."

Another said: "This is the third review in 16 months, no rollout plans, no confidence in going forward and stakeholders losing confidence in our ability to deliver."

In an email to [Universal Credit] programme staff on 23 July, the business change director, a senior civil servant, admits that the initial findings from the survey revealed that there was "much room for improvement".

"I'm a believer" declares himself proud of his achievements ... and is still happy to quote "industry figures" ...

But one suspects this "everything is firmly on track, but we are doing some of it at a slower pace than we might have suggested to make sure it is all done properly" is, with a post summer recess "getting ready for 2015" reshuffle in the offing, written to try and forestall yet another round - as was the case at the last reshuffle - of renewed whispering from his close colleagues that the great man has obviously achieved much but risks suffering from burn out and deserves to be given something quieter to do...

or possibly suggestions from some of them, with an eye on exactly how much of that deficit has been trimmed by 2015 and how bad it might look if on top of not having addressed that to any great degree they have also failed on the "welfare revolution" and "curing unemployment", that "measured against his own promises he has failed and has to go, now, before the whole project goes pear shaped..."

Questions have been raised about whether the dramatic pace of our reforms is too difficult to implement. But these doubts ignore my department's proven track record of delivering change and show a lack of ambition from the people raising them. Look at what has already been achieved.

We promised a benefit cap and it began, on time, in April in four London areas. It will be completely rolled out by September. We introduced the new personal independence payment as planned and on time. Automatic enrolment started last year, and now 1 million people have been registered into a workplace pension. People are using our Universal Jobsite website for more than 5m job searches a day. Our Work Programme has launched and the industry tells us that so far 321,000 people have found a job through it.

I am proud of this record. But my main concern about the delivery of our reforms is that we bring them in safely. I have no desire to follow in the disastrous footsteps of the last Labour government and rush out changes to meet an artificial timetable, only to be forced to scramble to sort it out when it goes wrong.
I find it nothing short of amusing that the opposition is now calling for universal credit to be delivered faster.

While I welcome its support for this radical transformation – following its rejection of all our other reforms – I won't take lessons from a party that brought us tax credit chaos and oversaw the decay of the welfare system".

For some reason we can only guess at they seem a bit coy about making it obvious what it is about

The Department for Work and Pensions, like many government departments, issues many a press release.  Today it has released one with the title  Local Authority Led Pilots: A summary of early learning from the pilots

Ok, hands up anyone who is wondering "er pilots, whatever they are, concerning what?"

Clues are forthcoming if the title of the release prompts you to actually investigate it.

"This report is the first published output from the evaluation of Local Authority Led Pilots in 13 areas in Great Britain set up to inform Universal Credit (UC) design and roll-out and to support Local Authorities (LAs) in their planning for UC delivery".

"The pilots commenced in September 2012 (although most only started in January 2013) and will run through to December 2013. The evaluation is being conducted in-house (although some LAs have bid for external evaluation monies as part of their bid) and the primary focus of the pilot evaluation is to capture evidence from individual pilot activity to inform the delivery and design of UC".

So, this report is concerned with Iain Duncan Smith's 'flagship project' Universal Credit, and yet those two words do not appear in the title of the press release announcing the report, nor indeed anywhere on the cover of the report.

Is it true? Will Universal Credit make work pay – so that people are better off in work than claiming benefits?

A much repeated claim made by Iain Duncan Smith, Lord Freud and junior ministers at the DWP is that it will - Universal Credit will make work pay – so that people are better off in work than claiming benefits. Embodying two, well what do we call them, promises, pledges, commitments, or assertions?

Increasingly, people who investigate the small print of UC and the "taper" methodology under UC for removing benefits as people increase the hours they work suggest it would be best to regard them as "assertions". That includes the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which has now published the results of a study by Donald Hirsch and Yvette Hartfree - Does Universal Credit enable households to reach a minimum income standard? - which concludes that:

" UC strengthens work incentives for some, but in many cases provides little or no incentive for additional work" and points out that people within certain "target groups" - lone parents and second earners on the minimum wage - "working 30 or more hours a week will reduce disposable income compared with working fewer hours. Above this level, working extra hours triggers higher childcare bills and reduced UC payments, and brings income into taxation".

To tie in with this week's appearance before the select commitee in the House Of Commons of Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud to discuss Universal Credit implementation a DWP Press Release published the same day once again said "Universal Credit is one of the most fundamental reforms to the welfare system since 1943, and will roll 6 benefits and tax credits into 1 to simplify the system and ensure people are better off in work". It also said that a further "6 Jobcentres will begin to take new claims to the benefit on a roll out programme from October 2013, continuing the safe and well tested approach to reform delivery".

So, will the "new claims" being accepted in these further pilots include the sorts of claims that will possibly throw up the evidence that that long standing assertion doesn't stand up, as Donald Hirsch and others are trying to point out, or will they too be confined to the sort of claims which are unlikely to?

With the full implementation now having been put back to October 2017 it isn't as if IDS doesn't have some time in which to revisit that assertion and make sure UC actually delivers on it, rather than just keep saying it will, whilst ignoring all carefully calculated and researched suggestions that it won't.

Update: 13th July.  Katie Schmuecker, policy and research manager at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, has a piece up at the NS Without childcare support, low-paid workers will lose out under Universal Credit

Off Topic - no way!

The Welfare to Work UK Convention 2013 kicks off tomorrow in Manchester, theme "Employment and skills - opportunity for all" - with all the usual suspects attending/sponsoring of course - 

and from the event programme what an interesting topic has been chosen for the very first "Convention debate":-

Now before anyone asks "what has the emerging justice market" got to do with Welfare to Work and starts muttering that this is just "the real beneficiaries of Welfare to Work " gathered together for a beano celebrating how they have benefited from one "taxpayer funded pot of gold" and what can be done to keep it going - Work Programme II is on the agenda - taking the opportunity of all being together at "the best networking opportunity of the year" to "investigate" how they will benefit from another being launched by the Ministry of Justice .......

Universal Credit and "making work pay" ....

One of the key advantages of the new scheme is that it removes the confusing overlaps between tax credits and housing benefit, which currently mean that working households can suffer high loses in net income if their wages increase. Under the present system the loss can be as high as 96p of every £1 increase in gross earnings. By combining credits and benefits, universal credit aims to ensure that working households keep at least 20p of every extra pound they earn. 

so, applying the “government spokesperson” best gloss a “fivefold improvement”; but .. 

The government has watered down the benefits to be gained from these changes by leaving council tax benefit out of the new system, so that working families whose earnings increase will still face the vicissitudes of whatever mechanisms for withdrawing council tax support apply where they live. But the majority of working families will be better off – indeed, the government's own assessment reckons that two-thirds of working families with children will benefit, against only 18% who will lose out.

Unemployed (and lonely*?) - then join "our free dating service" 'jokes' Mark Hoban

From the "check against delivery" advance text of A team effort – role of employers in improving welfare outcomes, a speech by Mark Hoban, Minister for Employment. Originally given at Reform Research Trust - Major Policy Conference, Association of British Insurers.

"We are part way through a programme to modernise and reform the support we offer to the unemployed. Last December, we launched an online dating agency for jobseekers and employers called Universal Jobmatch.

"Using state of the art technology, we have made it easier for employers to search for the best qualified candidate for a job and we will help jobseekers search and apply for a much wider range of jobs. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and as easily from your own home as from the job centre.

"Universal Jobmatch can be accessed through Gov.UK. To date there are over 2.4 million registered job seekers and 400,000 employers using the new matching service. Try it and it’s free."

* signing up guarantees many an interesting interaction with one of Mark's oh so friendly "advisers" and coming soon to further "spice things up" The Universal Credit Claimant Commitment!

"It isn't mandatory but on the other hand we like to suggest it could be mandatory, we hope that is now clear"

The DWP have issued yet another Press Release, today concerning aspects of Universal Credit (1616/2013).

The FoI enquiry : Received 29 March 2013                    Published June 2013

In the department's press release on the 29 March, "Universal Credit – Pathfinder update", it is stated that all new claims for Universal Credit at  Ashton-under-Lyne will mean being:    

"automatically signed on to Universal Jobmatch."

Please can you provide me with the following: * a Universal Credit claim form (paper copy) And: * the specific written instruction - on whatever document this might appear - making clear to the claimant the mandatory  requirement to register a Universal Jobmatch account.”

DWP response

A paper claim form does not exist as Universal Credit (UC) claims will be online or through the telephony channel.  We have contingency arrangements in place if the UC Core system is not available but this does not amount to a paper version of the on-line claim.

Instructions around 'mandatory, elements of Universal Jobmatch - setting up a UJ account is not a mandatory part of UC.
 

However the claimant commitment is mandatory and this may include action for the claimant to undertake with respect to using Universal Jobmatch to find work.

As we know the DWP certainly do intend "mandating" signing up to Universal Jobmatch and would very much like to be able to compel users into letting their “advisers” keep track of how they use it but at present reluctantly accept that they can't.  The current guidance for individuals regarding UC,  Universal Credit and your Claimant Commitment  "explains" on page 3:- 

In most cases, your Claimant Commitment will be drawn up during an interview with your adviser. If you are able to look or prepare for work, your Commitment will include things like your job goals, regular work search activity, or any work preparation actions that you must complete to receive Universal Credit.

Work search activity could involve registering with Universal Jobmatch or a recruitment agency, or applying for suggested vacancies.  Work preparation activity could include preparing a CV or attending and completing a training course. You could also be expected to attend regular interviews to discuss progress.

"The Search for the Pilot Claimant Open Day 2 was so very nearly a success"

Says a clearly exasperated Iain Duncan Smith. “We thought we had found our man,” said the Works and Pensions Secretary “Thanks to some help from my former Trusty Right Hand Chris Grayling, who had even gone to the trouble of laying on special transport to get him to the Town Hall in Tameside, where we could sit him in front of the terminal and really get cracking on testing the system when, well as you all now know, that happened and it just goes to show the lengths some people, and we know who they are, will go to to try and have Universal Credit fail.”

Mr Duncan Smith continued: “But these things happen I suppose, maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow.”

Fun Online Polls: R-Patz, K-Stew & Universal Credit

The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

R-Patz and K-Stew...

On - 1%
Off - 7%
On - 4%
Off - 5%
On - 3%
Who or what are you talking about? - 80%

Well, we were all wrong.

As it turns out, the R-Patz/K-Stew saga took another interesting twist a couple of days after I launched the poll, so maybe they are still on their third "off" or maybe they are already on their fourth "on".

Who knows? Who cares? Kids, bless 'em, is all I can say. The whole thing would be even funnier if turned out that Saunders is actually a werewolf.
---------------------------------------------
And lo, the ground breaking roll-out of the massive shake-up etc (TM New Labour) of the Coalition's flagship policy started today, which applies initially only to non-disabled childless single people living in Ashton-under-Lyme who start claiming unemployment benefit in future. I admit that BobE and I invented the bit about it only applying to people who like listening to King Crimson, flower arranging and home baking.

IDS keeps saying that the glorious new system "will mean people are always better off in work than on benefits" which might or might not be true, and it is probably slightly less untrue than under the current welfare system, which will continue for claimants everywhere else in the country (or to existing claimants in Ashton-under-Lyme who are either in a couple, have children or are disabled) for the next few years.

But how much better off will UC claimants be if they manage to find a job? Will they have a marginal withdrawal rate of 65%, 76%, 79% or 85%? In other words, will they keep 35p for every £1 they earn, 24p, 21p or 15p? A couple of clues here.

Place your bets here or use the widget in the sidebar.

DWP issues “simple rules” for Universal Credit launch

“I really wouldn’t bother applying, if I were you” says DWP spokesperson, adding “as so few of you are likely to qualify”
 

The new information on the stringent qualifying criteria for Universal Credit (UC) came as the DWP confirmed that it was about to run the first stringent pilot test of the new systems that have been introduced in the DWP and HMRC to manage “many benefits under one label” UC, which will replace a number of currently separate benefits. 

Setting out the new criteria in detail the spokesperson explained that "UC will only go to single people; with no disabilities and no children, who are fit and able to work" quickly continuing “Who are not entitled to Housing Benefit or mortgage interest support, have been unemployed for no more than six months, do not have parents or siblings or partners with whom they are living in sin for whom they exercise any form of caring responsibility, and who were born in the Tameside area, preferably on a Tuesday in a year the digits of which are exactly divisible by 4 and who like listening to King Crimson and home baking and flower arranging"

This radical redefining of who can qualify for UC is fully expected to deliver the immense savings in welfare expenditure Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has constantly been assuring Chancellor George Osborne UC would deliver, ever since the Chancellor agreed to provide the DWP with the countless hundreds of £millions extra funding required to deliver the IT hardware and software which UC required.

The DWP spokesperson also stressed that the pilot exercise would start shortly, as soon as “the pilot claimant” had been identified, adding that after several weeks work by a crack DWP investigative team bolstered by support from Tameside CID the department felt it was “close to identifying our man”.

The “pilot test” is likely to involve a “parallel running” exercise involving processing the pilot claim on both the new IT systems and manually, to see which works and which is quickest.  The DWP spokesperson said that should it prove in both cases to be the manual system that should not be regarded as “bad news” because it meant the full national roll out of UC could proceed whilst the Department concentrated on getting that new IT system up and running, without its unavailability hindering the garnering of the massive savings that UC will deliver, whilst adding that the DWP might have to run a swift recruitment exercise to ensure sufficient “paper and pen familiar” staff were on-hand to “process the claims from people who had given up trying to actually lodge an on-line claim, and simply printed the screen details out and walked them into their nearest JCP+”

(with thanks to MW for the steer)

"there are no problems with UC and it will roll out as planned"

The delay appears to be an admission by the Government that they do not have the training, computer programmes and experience in place to avoid embarrassing mistakes which could lead to people not receiving the benefits to which they are entitled.     In its announcement of the delay the Department of Work and Pension made no attempt to explain why it was unable to proceed as planned.

Absolutely not so, as a government spokesperson quickly made clear :-

"Now look here, when will you naysayers and disbelievers stop "reading between the lines" like this ...  UC is on track, it will remain on track, we are simply slowing down a bit, giving ourselves time to assimilate important new information, like that the f-ing IT doesn't in a lot of cases exist yet, and where it does exist the f-ing software stuck on it doesn't f-ing work and ....  er sorry about that, ignore the last few comments please, it is a really tiring and stressful job being a spokesperson for the DWP what I meant to say was, and on this you can quote me, this decision has only been taken because ..."

"it was 'sensible' to start with one area* before rolling it out to the other three in July.  It will allow us to make any changes that we feel we need to make and see what works and what doesn’t.”

*that area being "a single job centre in Ashton-under-Lyne".

Not so Universal Credit: Government puts the brakes on new benefits programme trials

"The Local Support Service Framework"

Emailed in by Bob E:

Ministerial Foreword

Universal Credit will make work pay – so that people are better off in work than claiming benefits. It will improve and modernise the benefit system and bring the experience of claiming and receiving benefit into line with the world of work.

And as Annex B illustrates, it really is going to be "so simple" ...

In making a claim to UC, the claimant will experience a series of key steps:
• Learn about UC;
• Create a UC account;
• Provide details for the claim;
• See likely payment amount;
• Submit claim;
• Prepare for an interview;
• Attend an initial interview;
• Prove ID
• Sign a Claimant Commitment; and
• Receive award notification and payment.

and once you have "got it":

In maintaining a claim to UC, a claimant will need to:
• Budget monthly and pay rent;
• Demonstrate “actively seeking work” (where appropriate);
• Take up work;
• Seek to increase their earnings from work; and
• Update their details.

and nor is the role that LSS's are expected to play "that big" either, and better yet, that is expressed in a totally "jargon and wonk speak free" way:

Local support services have to be focussed on delivering appropriate outcomes for claimants, communities and wider society. Although individuals will present specific challenges, and so require a tailored pathway to bring them closer to the labour market, the broad criteria for success are:
• Constructing a service that claimants, agents and intermediaries view as easy to use, easy to understand and easy to access - giving them confidence in the system;
• Helping individuals, especially those who need extra support, to make and manage a claim to UC;
• Providing a joined up and holistic support service to claimants ensuring minimum hand-offs between different agencies;
• Substantially improving work incentives and the recognition that work pays; and
• Increasing the number of people in employment when compared to the equivalent point of the previous economic cycle.

The ultimate aim of those providing services under the framework will be the creation of a “single claimant journey” from dependency to self sufficiency and work readiness, as far as is possible, behind which all service providers should be aligned. To this end DWP and delivery partners will identify specific outcomes required by individual claimants to help move them closer to the labour market and financial independence.

Can't fail, can it ?