Dr (Central Ayrshire)
(SNP)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to reform the
Universal Credit application process; to make provision about
advice and assistance for claimants, and arrangements for
payments; and for connected purposes.
I welcome the Chancellor’s removal of the arbitrary seven
waiting days, which reduces the waiting time to five weeks,
but the Department for Work and Pensions’ own data shows that
a quarter of all claimants are currently waiting longer than
six weeks. If universal credit is paid monthly because it is
meant to be like a salary, surely the maximum waiting time
should be a month. If the DWP cannot deliver that, the
roll-out of universal credit should be paused. It must be
recognised that 58% of universal credit claimants are paid
fortnightly or weekly and therefore do not have a monthly
salary to see them through the waiting time. Many work on
zero-hours or low-hours contracts and are unlikely to have
any savings to fall back on. The impact has been demonstrated
by the Trussell Trust’s report of a 30% surge in the use of
food banks in universal credit roll-out areas.
Universal credit arrived in my constituency on Budget
day—last Wednesday. That means that many of my constituents
will be facing weeks five and six at Christmas and new year.
It means that they will go into the festive season and the
hardest part of the winter without having received their
universal credit. I welcome the increase in the advance loans
to 100% of entitlement, but I have to ask why, if that can be
worked out so quickly, it takes so long to deliver universal
credit. I also welcome the fact that the payback has been
stretched to a year, but it is important that claimants do
not have to jump through hoops and that that is the routine
time, so that paying back advanced loans does not generate
further financial stress.
The Bill proposes that the Government follow the options that
will be available from the Scottish Government in the form of
twice-monthly and direct landlord payments. Claimants should
not have to jump through hoops for those; they should simply
be able to choose their option, because they best understand
their own circumstances.
The Bill is an attempt to solve some of the administrative
problems, particularly the fact that the circumstances in
which a claimant lives are taken into account only on the one
assessment day every month, with changes applied to the
entire month regardless of how short a time they actually
apply. If a child left home the day before assessment day, it
would therefore be assumed that they had not been there for
the whole month, meaning that the benefits would be reduced.
Claimants complete their logbooks online. Computers have
calculators, so how hard is it to work out to what proportion
of the month changes of circumstances apply?
Similarly, self-employed people face a minimum income floor
of more than £1,100. If they earn more, their universal
credit is reduced, but if they earn less, it is not
increased. Such an approach does not take account of the
variability of many self-employed professions, the drop in
people’s income if they choose to have a short holiday with
their family in the summer, or the effect of the four extra
public holidays at Christmas and new year.
There is a need to find a replacement for the award letter to
give a detailed breakdown of universal credit components.
Some banks have been advised by their risk departments not to
lend against universal credit at all. Many working people
will now be receiving tax credits through universal credit,
but that income may not be counted towards getting a
mortgage. Those who are looking for loans may also be
refused, and that could drive them into the arms of payday
lenders and loan sharks. Trying to tackle this matter could
also help to re-establish automatic passporting to other
benefits, particularly free school meals. North Ayrshire
Council in my constituency automatically registers children
for free school meals both to reduce stigma and to ensure
that children do not miss out. It is important that we do not
lose that advantage.
The Bill calls on the Government to make separate payments
the norm. It is often said that universal credit should be
like a salary, but salaries are paid to individuals, and it
is quite Victorian to go back to the idea of the breadwinner.
I certainly would not be too chuffed if my salary was posted
to my husband. To be serious, however, financial control is
usually the first level of abuse. A survey of 4,000 people
showed that one in five had faced financial control or abuse.
Although those people are not all women, 88% were women in
relationships, which means that they are the vast majority. A
women with no money in her purse at all very quickly becomes
isolated from her friends or from any support network because
she simply cannot afford to go for a coffee. She feels
embarrassed, she starts to withdraw and she ends up isolated.
More than half of all women in abusive or violent
relationships cite lack of money as their reason for not
leaving. No woman should have to choose between poverty and
abuse.
The Bill calls for both a cumulative and an equality impact
assessment of all the welfare changes over the past five
years to be carried out and then published. The biggest loss
of income is due to the benefit freeze, the two-child limit
and the bedroom tax, but the issues involved in universal
credit are compounding the problem. This Bill seeks to find
pragmatic solutions. It must not be forgotten that poverty is
the biggest driver of physical and mental ill health. It has
the greatest impact on children because they find it hard to
study when they are cold and hungry. Poverty can blight their
lives, ruin their educational chances and reduce their
chances of a good job in the future. Instead of ending up
spending money on blighted lives in the criminal justice
system, dealing with drug addiction or paying benefits to
those children, we should invest in them now. There was broad
agreement on the policy of universal credit, but we need to
fix the reality so that universal credit becomes a flexible
and supportive benefit that helps people back to work, but
does not punish them for the situation they find themselves
in.
I call on the Minister to listen to charities, local
authorities and MPs right across this House. It is important
that the Government recognise that universal credit is flawed
and they need to fix it now.
Question put and agreed to.
Ordered,
That Dr , , , , , Alison Thewlis,
, , , , and present the Bill.
Dr accordingly
presented the Bill.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday
16 March 2018, and to be printed (Bill 132).
