You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Association has raised suicide alerts for some UC tenants
A housing association has been so concerned about some of its tenants on Universal Credit that it has raised suicide alerts with local GPs.
Evidence submitted to the Work and Pensions Committee by Halton Housing Trust in Cheshire reveals more than a doubling of food bank referrals since a year ago and incorrect advice given by government officials.
Frank Field, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said the evidence was the “most damning” he has received on the roll-out of Universal Credit.
Halton Housing Trust has had the full service of Universal Credit since July last year. It has 1,252 tenants in receipt of Universal Credit – 18% of their total tenants. It has built up £400,000 in rent arrears “as a direct result of the roll-out of full service UC”.
READ MORE
Over the past 12 months the number of referrals Halton Housing has made to local food banks has more than doubled.
One in five of its tenants are not getting their Universal Credit payment within six weeks and this is leading to financial difficulties and health problems in some cases.
The housing association said its tenants are only able to claim an advance payment through the premium rate phone number and the average charge for this phone call was between £3.60 and £13.50 “at a time when many of this group have little or no money”.
Incorrect advice is being provided by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) staff, the association said. Some tenants are being told they have to repay advance payments within six months when they should be given one year.
Tenants are only being awarded £22 per week in advance payments. This is “significantly lower” than the correct amount which should be up to 50% of the full Universal Credit allowance. The association said this is “clearly insufficient to live on for a period of between six and eight weeks”.
The association is not aware of any tenants who have been offered personal budgeting support when they are given advance payments. In its evidence the association wrote: “This is surprising when the request for the advance would indicate that a claimant is experiencing financial hardship.”
Tenants will be hit by an “unintended flaw” in the Universal Credit system as Christmas approaches, the association said.
Some employers will pay their employees early ahead of the Christmas break. But the Universal Credit system considers this an increase in income and not an early payment. This will trigger a review of their Universal Credit claim, the association said, with no payments being made in January as a result.
The association said the “true impact” of the benefit cap is now being realised with the roll-out of Universal Credit and an “increasing number of families are now being impacted”. These families are having their Universal Credit payments reduced and the association has been so concerned in a number of cases that it has raised suicide alerts with GPs.
Mr Field said: “It would be difficult to think, in all my period of chair of the select committee, of a piece of evidence that is so damning on the DWP maladministration which is mangling poorer people’s lives. This maladministration is throwing Universal Credit claimants’ finances into chaos.”
The DWP has been approached for comment.
