Ongoing News

The burden of proof is on the DWP decision maker to show that a claimant did not have good cause for attending a PIP medical. Sometimes a client disputes that they received a letter about the appointment for the medical.

A current change is that the age to claim Pension Credit will continue to rise- it was 64 and six months in April 2018 and will be 65 by November 2018. By November 2020 it will have risen to 66.

A common problem with Universal Credit is that many claimants don't complete their claims and receive a payment. Often it can lead to them having to reclaim, sometimes multiple times, leading to non payment of benefit and increased rent

arrears.

The government say- 'We are currently testing the service with people who:

There have been some significant changes announced by the government concerning Universal Credit. 

In a statement on 7/6/2018, Esther McVey, says that the government intends to make the following changes-

DWP- 'New guidance coming into effect this summer means people who are awarded the highest level of support under PIP – and wher

A National Audit Office report 'Rolling out Universal Credit' has found-

The number of live claims for Universal Credit has grown to nearly one million for the first time.

As the digital (full) service rolls out to all areas this year, the numbers moving onto UC should speed up further.

Want to see what the online claim and management process looks like?

Click here to view items such as-

●  The claim

●  The online journal

●  The to do list

●  The ID verification procedure

●  Change of circumstance

The government has said it will start the reassessment of PIP cases concerning

those with mental health conditions and mobility descriptor 1 and also safety.

Some claimants of Universal Credit get help with free prescriptions and health benefits; those with net monthly

earnings of less than £435 (or no earnings) or for those with children or those classed as sick the earnings threshold

is higher- £935.

Latest UC statistics-

36% of claimants are in employment.  Conditionality(what a client has to do to get benefit) is shown below.

Government Statistics tell us that more people get sanctioned under Universal Credit than under the existing legacy benefits system.

'Welfare Conditionality: Sanctions, Support and Behaviour Change' is a major 5

year programme of research funded by the Economic and Social Research

Council. It brings together teams of researchers working in six English and

Scottish Universities.

Between 1st April 2017 and 31st March 2018, The Trussell Trust’s foodbank network distributed 1,332,952 three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis, a 13% increase on the previous year.

And yet around £13 billion goes unclaimed in benefits each year.