Rollout - the government has given us some complex detail- '
... we will direct new claims from families with more than two children to Tax Credits until November 2018. Thereafter, new claims from families with more than two children will be taken through Universal Credit. Families already on Universal Credit who have a third child after April 2017 will remain on Universal Credit and receive two child elements.
...the policy to remove the higher rate of child element for the rst child in Universal Credit will only apply where the rst child is born after 6 April 2017, aligning the treatment of families within Universal Credit to that in Tax Credits.
...the incorporation of Housing Bene t for pensioners into Pension Credit will not begin until the completion of the Universal Credit timetable, in order to give greater certainty to Local Authorities. In addition, the regulations on treatment of surplus earnings and self-employed losses will now be implemented from April 2018.
... The Department will continue its successful rollout of ve jobcentres a month to June 2017, expanding to 30 in July 2017. Following a break over the summer the Department will scale up to 55 jobcentres per month between October and December 2017. From February 2018 this will increase to 65 per month, finishing with the nal 57 jobcentres in September 2018.
The Government has also taken account of the comments by the NAO and PAC that the existing rollout plan contains no contingency, and the risks to delivery that brings. For the rst time since Universal Credit was announced in 2010, we will put speci c contingency into the plan from September 2018 until June 2019. The managed migration of existing bene t claims will start in July 2019 and complete in March 2022.
... Following a planned break in January 2017, Universal Credit will be rolled out to Corby, Southampton, Newcastle East, Warrington and Poplar in February 2017. Following this, in March 2017, Universal Credit will be rolled out to Hinckley, Dalkeith, Newcastle West, Penicuik and City Tower. In addition the Scottish sites rolling out in November 2016 are changing from Fort William, Invergordon, Portree, Wick and Dingwall to Port Glasgow, Greenock and Kirkintilloch.'
Youth obligation from April 2017- Homeless Link say '...we now know that, the Youth Obligation is only being introduced next April 2017 into geographical areas with the Full Universal Credit service rather than across the whole of Great Britain..' This is when an intense period of work activity will begin at the start of a UC claim. The government also plan to end automatic entitlement to UC housing costs for this age group from April 2017.
The number of people on Universal Credit as of 14 July 2016 was 303,839. The number of people in employment is currently 120,700 (40 per cent).
Remember you can get DHPs with Universal Credit- the government has issued guidance that reminds councils that discretionary housing payments can not just be paid for housing bene t recipients, but also for those on Universal Credit. '...as a claimant has an established entitlement to housing costs for rental liability in Universal Credit they can apply to the Local authority(LA) for a DHP. The decision to award such a payment remains, of course, at the LA’s discretion.' EmployerstoalterpaycyclesinlinewithUC?
The government has said 'We are currently implementing a test and learn approach to understand the interaction of Universal Credit and employer pay cycles and its effect on awards. This work will include discussions with employers. ' Book Now for our updated Universal Credit 2016 course.