Providers responsible for more than a quarter of supported
housing for people with experience of homelessness in the UK –
Riverside, YMCA, St Mungo’s and The Salvation Army – have today
released research, which outlines a number of difficulties
their residents face when attempting to make and
maintain a claim for Universal Credit. As a result, the coalition
has set out recommendations to government to help improve
vulnerable claimants’ experience of Universal Credit in
practice.
Conducted by social security experts, Policy in Practice,
the findings are based on interviews with people living in
supported housing, support workers, benefit and income advisers,
and Work Coaches from Jobcentre Plus.
The research found that residents in supported housing
often face challenges in adapting to new processes following
periods of homelessness, as well as ongoing problems with mental
ill-health and addiction. It also found that:
-
claimants face difficulties in communicating their
specific circumstances to the DWP, which can negatively impact
their claim for Universal Credit’s personal elements;
-
administrative processes such as providing identification
and setting up online claims are problematic for claimants,
with restrictions placed on existing forms of communication
with the DWP limiting how quickly issues can be resolved;
and
-
that an increasing amount of time is being spent by
support workers on Universal Credit related issues, which can
negatively impact on other essential support
activities.
When discussing the complexities of Universal Credit and
its potential effect on her efforts to make a claim, one research
participant said: “I couldn’t have done it [alone]. I would have
given up”. This is a situation, which would have left her without
money to meet even basic living costs.
Riverside, YMCA, St Mungo’s and The Salvation Army suggest
that the current barriers can be largely overcome and recommend
the DWP treat supported housing providers as partners in helping
their residents manage their claim. In exchange, with much better
communication channels, supported housing providers would be able
to remove some of the administrative burdens currently faced by
the DWP, actively supporting residents to adapt to Universal
Credit’s unique requirements.
Jonathon Graham, Policy Adviser for The Salvation Army,
said: “While we welcomed the announcement from government that
housing benefit will be maintained to help meet the housing costs
of people living in supported housing, we urge them to recognise
the additional support that people living in our services require
to access Universal Credit in the first place, and the ongoing
support that is needed to ensure their claim is maintained as
they move towards independence.
“As the roll out of Universal Credit continues more of our
residents will be required to make a claim to help cover their
daily living costs. In the absence of further action to improve
Universal Credit, we fear that the problems highlighted in our
report will continue to grow, causing unnecessary hardship to
thousands of claimants who are already in vulnerable
positions.
“As our research clearly demonstrates, many of the
difficulties identified can be overcome if supported housing
services and support workers are treated by the DWP as partners
in helping to support claimants with specific needs make and
maintain their Universal Credit claims. At its heart, this would
involve the formal recognition of the role support workers can
play in helping residents manage their money, and the more
efficient two-way sharing of information between DWP and
services, based on a simplified approach to consent.
“For mainstream housing, ‘Trusted Partner’ status is
already available to certain housing associations. We believe
that this process could be adapted for providers of supported
housing to help people proactively manage the personal elements
of their universal credit claim.”
The benefit of support was emphasised by a research
participant who said: “I can’t fault [her support worker]. She
takes care of, everything, like tax questions, because it's all
new to me. And bills too, setting up my water bill, because I've
never had to do that before, so she's helped me with that
too.”
The complexities involved with making and maintaining a
Universal Credit claim has resulted in a significant amount of
work already being undertaken by services to help people overcome
barriers such as digital exclusion, lack of identification, and
lengthy assessment periods. However, too often this progress is
limited by a complex administrative system which assumes that
claimants have the experience and life skills to cope.
Jonathan Graham continues: “We urge the government to take
the time to make the improvements recommended by our research to
help ensure Universal Credit can meet the needs of vulnerable
people. Crucially, we believe that the vast majority of our
suggestions can be made without technical changes to the
Universal Credit Regulations.
“We are keen to continue our work with government to that
universal credit works for all claimants, and specifically those
living in supported housing.”
