Ongoing News

click here to access the free Welfare Benefit Rates poster 2020 2021 (applicable from April 2020).

Managed migration is when existing claimants of legacy benefits will be invited to claim Universal Credit. It is due to take place from 2020- 2024. It has the advantage that transitional protection payments will be paid to claimants who lose out.

A pilot in Harrogate of (eventually) 10,000 claimants is currently taking place.

A claimant can qualify for free prescription/ health costs if on the date they claim help with health costs:
a) they receive Universal Credit and either had no earnings or had net earnings of £435 or less in their last Universal Credit assessment period
Or

Bereavement Support Payments(BSP) is only available at the moment if partners were in a civil partnership or marriage.

Private sector rents are rarely affordable for claimants of either Housing Benefit or Universal Credit. Local Housing Allowance(LHA) rates have been frozen for four years since April 2016. This is set to change from April 2020.

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Many benefit rates have been frozen for the last 4 years. This has been the biggest single cut in Benefits.

From April 2020 this will change The general principle of increasing Benefits each year with inflation with be restored.

We don't have much detail on the government plans for Benefits at present.

Certainly, a large scale reversal of cuts is not planned. It's mostly more of the same. In their manifesto they said-

Inside Housing have reported an announcement by Neil Couling, senior responsible owner for Universal Credit at the DWP – He wrote: 'One of the key things landlords have told us is that receiving your payment at the same time  your tenant receives

The Labour Party manifesto gives details on proposed benefit changes-

'Benefits culture- 'replacing the DWP on day one with a Department for Social Security, which will be there to help and support people, not punish and police them.'

A TUC report has found that child poverty in working families is up almost 40 per cent since 2010.

The Trussell Trust has produced a report called The State of Hunger.

It found-

DWP guidance has been issued on the law change from 27/11/2019 that sees the maximum length of a sanction reduced from 156 weeks to 26 weeks for new and existing UC and JSA sanctions.

We would like to share the following information from a DWP partnership manager.

It is regarding a problem where a client loses out on Universal Credit because they are paid twice in one assessment period.  This is because the employer may pay the client's monthly pay early for Christmas.

Computer access/ helpline/ home visits- the government say -