Universal Credit

Universal Credit is a welfare benefit launched in the United Kingdom in 2013 to replace six means-tested benefits and tax credits: income based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Housing Benefit, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, income based Employment and Support Allowance and Income Support.

A pilot in four local authorities was scheduled to precede the national launch of the scheme in October 2013 for new claimants (excluding more complex cases such as families with children), with a gradual transition to be complete by 2017. However, due to persistent IT failures and delays in implementation, only one of the original pilots went ahead at the expected date, in Ashton-under-Lyne, The other three pilots went ahead later in the summer, and were met by protests.. Once the IT teams finally got to grips with Agile methodology, the wide scale roll out of Universal credit was able to start, at a somewhat languid pace.

Initially limited to new single healthy claimants in the North West of England, Universal credit was later extended to couples, then families, in the same area, reflecting the gradual maturing of different aspects of the IT system. Once the North West roll-out was largely completed, the government gradually extended Universal Credit to new single healthy claimants in the rest of the British mainland, nearly completing this rollout as of 13 March 2016. It is expected that this will gradually be extended to couples and families outside the North West once the rollout to mainland single claimants has been completed. Until late 2015, implementation in Northern Ireland has been held up by disputes over policy and funding between feuding parties in the Stormont Assembly, and there is still no published date for rollout to begin.

As of 22 February 2016, 364,000 people have made a claim on Universal Credit, and government figures claim that "Universal Credit claimants find work quicker, stay in work longer and earn more than the Jobseekers’ Allowance claimants".. Much more extensive features for the public internet interface are currently undergoing trial among claimants in Sutton.

Existing claimants of legacy benefits are not expected to be transferred to Universal Credit until late 2017 at the earliest, with some existing claimants who have complex disabilities not expected to be transferred until at least 2020.

Background

The proposed Universal Credit was outlined by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith at the Conservative Party annual conference in 2010. The aim was for implementation fully over four years and two parliaments, intending to merge the six main existing means tested benefits and tax credits into a single monthly payment, as well as to cut costs (the administration of six independent benefits, and associated IT systems, having considerable expense). These six benefits are: income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Housing Benefit.

Unlike some existing benefits, such as Income Support, that have a 100% withdrawal rate, the Universal Credit will be gradually tapered away, as is the case with the existing tax credits and Housing Benefit so that, in theory, people can take a part-time job and still be allowed to keep some of the money they receive. Criticism from the mainstream media, such as the Daily Telegraph, have claimed "part-time work may no longer pay", and "some people would be better off refusing it [part-time work]". The new system may also ensure that self-employment is no longer a viable option for vast swathes of the population due to the "Minimum Income Floor" provision.

According to pressure group the Child Poverty Action Group, Universal Credit may affect the low-paid self-employed and anyone who makes a tax loss. It is proposed that Universal Credit, like the current Working Tax Credits, will be "limited to those who exceed the 'floor of assumed income'" based on the National Minimum Wage. Self-employed people who for whatever reason were unable to earn the equivalent of an employed person paid on the National Minimum Wage would have their working tax credit stopped, reducing their income. . In essence, the government would be treating them as people with an inadequate number of working hours, and hence expect them to seek alternative employment, or more hours, instead of asking the government to fund the effective equivalent of a mainly workless lifestyle.

Universal Credit has some similarities to the negative income tax, but should not be confused with the universal basic income or basic income guarantee. There is some debate as to whether it should be considered 'universal' given that it is subject to income levels and conditions around work availability.

Conditionality

There will be four types of conditionality for claimants, depending on their circumstances, ranging from their being required to look for full-time work to their not being required to find work at all (people in the unconditional group will include the severely disabled and carers).

Implementation

Universal Credit is part of a package of measures in the Welfare Reform Act 2012, which received Royal Assent on 9 March 2012. The Welfare Reform Act delegates the detailed workings of Universal Credit to regulations, most of which were published in February 2013 as the Universal Credit Regulations 2013. Related regulations appear in a range of other statutory instruments from 2013.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced that Universal Credit will be delivered by the best performing DWP and Tax Credit processing centres. An announcement about the selection of these sites was made by the DWP on 28 February 2012. From this it is clear that local authorities, who currently deliver Housing Benefit (one of the key legacy benefits which will be incorporated into Universal Credit), will not have a core role in delivering Universal Credit. However, the Government has started to recognise that there may be useful roles for local authorities in helping people to access the services within Universal Credit.

Philip Langsdale, Chief Information Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions, who had been leading the programme, died on 22 December 2012, and the previous few months had seen other significant personnel changes. Additionally, project director Hillary Reynolds resigned in March 2013 after just four months in the role, with the new chief executive of Universal Credit taking on the role.

A staff survey reported by The Guardian on 2 August 2013 under the headline "Universal Credit staff describe chaos behind scenes of flagship Tory reform" that the comments from Universal Credit implementation staff were highly critical. 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." The Guardian on 31 October 2013, in an article said to be based on leaked documents, entitled "Universal credit: £120m could be written off to rescue welfare reform" reported that a maximum of 25,000 people – just 0.2% of all benefit recipients – will be transferred on to the programme by the next general election in May 2015. However, by May 2015 over 100,000 people had made a claim for Universal Credit.

Pilot

The scheme was planned to be piloted in April 2013 in four local authorities – Tameside, Wigan, Warrington, and Oldham, with the credit being paid by the DWP's Bolton Benefit Centre. The pilot project was reduced to one (Tameside), with the other three to join the pilot in July. In April 2013 it was made clear that the pilot in Tameside would cover only around 300 people per month, and be limited to the very simplest cases, such as single people with no children.

The whole scheme was to begin nationally in October 2013 for new claimants (excluding more complex cases such as families with children), with a gradual transition to be completed by 2017. One tester of the system in April 2013 noted that the online forms took around 45 minutes to complete, and that there was no save function.

In March 2013 it was reported that during the pilot all final Universal Credit calculations would be done manually using spreadsheets, with the new IT system being used primarily to book appointments and store some personal details. The Guardian reported that at the town hall in Tameside, the first place to pilot the scheme, no claimants turned up in person on day one, leaving it unable to comment in detail on claimants' experiences with the new system (it did note a spelling mistake on the first page of the online process).

The Financial Times reported on 29 April 2013 that the October national rollout will now start with a single Jobcentre or a "cluster" of them in each region, and that in a letter to local authority chief executives in December 2012, seen by the Financial Times, Hilary Reynolds, who had been appointed programme director for the Universal Credit project but moved on after four months in the role, stated: "For the majority of local authorities the impact of [Universal Credit] during the financial year 2013–14 will be limited."

Since the planned implementation date of 28 October 2013 it has been acknowledged by the DWP that there has been considerable slippage, and it has also been reported that managers told staff in Jobcentres that the general roll-out of Universal Credit would not commence until October 2014, at the earliest.

On 3 December 2013 the DWP issues statistics showing that between April 2013 and 30 September 2013, only 2,150 people have started on Universal Credit in the four Pathfinder areas of Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, Warrington, and Wigan. This report confirmed that six further sites are rolling out between October and the spring 2014, which started with Hammersmith on 28 October, followed by Rugby and Inverness on 25 November and will expand to Harrogate, Bath, and Shotton by spring 2014.

Current status

With the completion of the pilot phase, and the initially languid roll-out to the North West of England, the pace of implementation was increased drastically. As of September 2015, Universal Credit was available in over half of job centres across Great Britain and will be available in all Jobcentres early 2016.

As of the middle of 2015, 175,000 people had made a claim on Universal Credit, and government figures showed that "Universal Credit claimants find work quicker, stay in work longer and earn more than the Jobseekers’ Allowance claimants".. Although the figure might seem somewhat low, the total claimant count in the UK, for jobseeking benefit, is only 760,000 people (representing 2.2% of the working-age population), so this figure equates to over 20% of jobseeking benefit claimants. Total UK unemployment is only 1.69 million people (this figure excludes people in training, education, people not of working age, etc.).

Method of payment

Payments for Universal Credit will be made once a month directly into a bank or building society account. Any help with rent will be included with the Universal Credit payment and the claimants then pay their landlord themselves.

Criticism

Universal Credit has been subject to a number of criticisms relating to its design.

Online applications

Professor John Seddon, author and occupational psychologist, started a campaign for an alternative way to deliver Universal Credit in January 2011. He made the case that you can't deliver high-variety services through 'cheaper' transaction channels, and argued instead that this would drive costs up. John Seddon wrote an open letter to Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud as the start of a campaign to call a halt to the current plans and, instead, to embark on a systems approach which he thought would be better. Seddon started a petition in 2011 calling for Iain Duncan Smith to "rethink the centralised, IT- dominated service design for the delivery of Universal Credit. Evidence from a significant number of housing benefit offices demonstrates that local, face-to-face processing of benefits is cheaper and faster than distant automated telephone and online processing. Processing claims face-to-face is not only cheaper and faster but an excellent way of ensuring that vulnerable people understand both their entitlement and their obligations. Feedback from claimants is overwhelmingly positive when their claim is dealt with face-to-face by an expert."

Echoing these concerns, Ronnie Campbell, MP for Blyth Valley, sponsored an Early Day Motion (No. 1908) on 13 June 2011 on the topic of the delivery of Universal Credit which was signed by thirty MPs. It proposed "That this House notes that since only fifteen per cent of people in deprived areas have used a Government website in the last year, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) may find that more Universal Credit customers than expected will turn to face-to-face and telephone help from their local authority, DWP helplines, Government-funded welfare organisations, councillors and their Hon. Member as they find that the automated system is not able to deal with their individual questions, particular concerns and unique set of circumstances".

Wait for payments

The Trades Union Congress has raised concerns about the five week delay between making a claim and receiving money.

Direct payments to tenants

Direct payment of housing benefit to tenant under Universal Credit has been the subject of controversy. The Social Security Advisory Committee have argued that the policy [of direct payments] requires “close monitoring” so as to make sure that Universal Credit does not further discourage landlords renting to people on benefits.

Costs

Whilst original estimates from the DWP planned for the administration costs for the rollout of Universal Credit were £2.2billion, by August 2014 this estimate was revised to £12.8billion over its "lifetime". The cost has since increased to £15.8 billion. At that date only 7,000 claimants were receiving UC, although there are now over 175,000. Much of the increased costs are associated with requiring to use both systems to continue paying out and the software problems. The rate of rollout has been much slower than originally proposed. This has led to the departure of several senior leadership figures in the program. Iain Duncan Smith has pronounced this process "a success."

See also

• Welfare Reform Act 2012
• Welfare Reform and Work Bill (2015–16)
• Taxation in the United Kingdom
• UK labour law
• Flexible Support Fund

External links

• Online benefits calculator - covers universal credit and all means tested benefits
• Universal Credit Calculator
• Universal Credit - welfare that works, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
• Universal Credit FAQs
• Universal Credit Toolkit FAQs
• Who is affected by Universal Credit
• Benefits in the Future