Ongoing News

Some clients, who are jointly liable for UC housing costs have problems when a joint tenant leaves.

The government has announced a replacement for the Furlough scheme. It essentially shifts the burden of support more on the employer instead of the government, maintaining most of the employees income(at least 77% of normal).

From 21/9/2020 the courts have started to process evictions again. 

The government say-

A welcome change has occurred for clients who fail their Work Capability Assessment and have no benefit up to the date of the MR. They can now lodge their appeal directly and if they send in ft for work notes, will be able to access ESA pending an appeal immediately without having to go for MR.

The Trussell Trust has published a report that finds Food bank Use has grown by 81% under the Pandemic.

Many of you have explained how some of your clients were wrongly advised by DWP/ job centre staff to move from Tax Credits to UC, and subsequently find that they are worse off.

Initially the government signalled that they may try to redress this situation but this approach has now been reversed.

The amount employers can claim from the furlough scheme will drop from 80% to 70% in September and down to 60% in October. The scheme is due to finish at the end of October. Redundancies are predicted and clients will have to consider claiming benefits. Over 9 million workers have been furloughed since March. 

A summary of changes to the scheme is given below. 

Government statistics tell us At May 2020 150,000 households had their benefits capped in GB: 30,000 had HB capped  120,000 had UC capped.  

This topic is covered in our

DHP statistics tell us- The DHP amounts given to Local Authorities in 2019/20 was around £118 million, almost all of which is spent.  41% of Local Auth

From 26/8/2020,   a new law adds an extra category of client who will get Statutory Sick Pay(SSP) for up to 14 days where all 3 conditions are met-

have been notified that they are to undergo a surgical or other hospital procedure;

Until 1/8/2020, free TV licences were a Universal Benefit to which all those aged over 75 were entitled. The BBC has confirmed that from that date around 5 million people in the UK over the age of 75 are losing their automatic right to a free TV licence and many will have to pay £157.50 a year.

A very welcome run on of legacy benefits for two weeks after natural migration to Universal Credit applies from 22/7/2020. The DWP say-

Prison Leavers – UC Overview

The government has published handy tips for those supporting clients with Universal Credit before/ during and after being in prison.

These include- 'Going into prison:

Not being married or in a civil partnership is usually a bar on claiming Bereavement Benefts.

In response to a test case the government lost, that should be about to change. The government say

Open courses- we currently have 9 different open courses on offer

We are planning to continue to offer online training from September onwards. Feedback has been positive from you in terms of learning outcomes, course materials provided, group work and zero travelling times/ expenses. We will keep you updated with any new course dates.

In house Courses