Should Universal Credit 'full roll-out' be halted or scrapped entirely? And what of the 'Department for Work & Pensions'?

Sunday, 12 November 2017

Should Universal Credit 'full roll-out' be halted or scrapped entirely? And what of the 'Department for Work & Pensions'?

I would say that this approach

Yahoo News: Jeremy Corbyn calls for Universal Credit to be halted
'before millions of people are made worse off'

does not go nearly far enough. What about those who have already been made worse off under the so-called 'Universal Credit'?(2)

The 'Universal Credit is too big to fail' consensus of acquescence that has existed hitherto within the Labour Party and also the other main political parties that 'Universal Credit is a good idea' is one based largely on ignorance and prejudice.

Not only does 'Universal Credit' need to be 'stopped and scrapped'(2), but the Department for Work & Pensions needs to be changed from the benefits denial factory it seems to have been designed as

A major problem with any existing DWP system is that it leads the way to further abuses against claimants, as can be seen from my blog post Terra firma benefits services closures leave the economically vulnerable in the lurch.(3) Even before it became the Department for Work & Pensions, its decision-making by remote control mechanisms were designed as what could be called the 'detached torturer syndrome', with pay-per-minute and long delays calls to add to the financial punishment for being poor enough to require help.

Further still to the evidence brought up in that blog post about DWP as what might be called a 'claimants' rights denial factory', is Labour's previous role in bringing in Employment & Support Allowance as a more 'active labour-market programme' oriented payment, and Yvette Cooper's tightening of 'eligibility' restrictions even further in response to claimants' tribunal victories.(4) The Tories were left to pilot the outgoing Labour DWP Secretary's 'Work Capability Assessment' Mk 2 after 2010 General Election.(5)

Notes

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Sunday, 12 November 2017