ABC Warns of Growing Universal Credit Crisis in Essex

The Association of Pension & Benefits CIC is warning of a growing crisis in Essex that is being caused by Universal Credit (UC).

A spokesperson for the DWP Basildon processing center has today warned that staff - each managing around six hundred claimants, are not able to respond in writing in many cases to messages posted in customers on-line Universal Credit journals. 

One of the reasons that complaints are piling up says the ABC, is something called the Assessment Period. What happens is when people sign-on is there is a week waiting period and then the assessment period starts. Universal Credit is assessed and paid in arrears, on a monthly basis in a single payment.

What is happening says the ABC, is that the DWP are not considering when you physically get paid - it is when the payment is recorded in the HMRC payroll software by the Company that creates an Employer Payment Summary (EPS). So, someone who gets paid on says the 28th of the month can find that a slow employer that updates the software on the 13th of the following month can move the payment into the next assessment period without the Claimant knowing.

Some Companies even do their books quarterly says Simon Collyer the founder of the ABC. So, someone expecting to get paid can suddenly find their Universal Credit can be stopped altogether.

Especially vulnerable are those with health issues. Simon Collyer has been battling the DWP to stop the arbitrary stopping of benefits for those with long-term health issues.

Universal Credit is nothing like the real world of work, says the ABC. When in employment, if it is payday, as an employee you know what you are going to get paid and when. The system is more like playing Russian Roulette. 

The ABC has taken up this issue with Colchester MP Will Quince (Cons.) and they have asked if the Health and Safety Executive can become involved.

The ABC are asking that before anyone’s benefits are stopped for to cases to be referred to an independent medical expert for a risk assessment. There also ought to be a booklet explaining how Universal Credit works given to claimants say the ABC.

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