Politics

DWP 'must change' Universal Credit rules to let people with savings get cash


A think tank today warns Universal Credit must be made “battle ready” for the coronavirus crisis by extending eligibility to middle-income households.

Experts demanded the government scrap the ‘capital rules tests’ – which deny support to those with £16,000 in savings.

The tests also reduce support for those with savings over £6,000.

The think tank said a family who saved £16,000 for a house deposit would miss out on £1,400 of support a month, and chew through  half their deposit over six months.

The Foundation also called for more advance payments to go to those who need them faster and weekly statistics on claims.

A think tank demanded the government scrap the ‘capital rules tests’ – which deny support to those with £16,000 in savings

Senior economist Karl Handscomb said: “The Chancellor has already announced a £7 billion plan to make the system more generous. The key challenge now is to encourage more people to claim UC, process those claims rapidly, and get payments out to people as soon as possible.

“The roll-out of Universal Credit in recent years has been beset by controversy.

“But its performance over the next few months is the real test of this new benefit system – as it provides a living standards lifeline to millions of households.”

Despite teething problems the think tank acknowledged UC has been “more resilient than many people thought”.

It comes after new figures showed 950,000 people filed claims for Universal Credit in the last 16 days – around nine times the usual rate.

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Coronavirus outbreak

Some 10,000 DWP staff have been reassigned to the front line to deal with the influx as claimants say they have faced online queues of tens of thousands of people to prove their identity.

A DWP spokesman said: “We are moving 10,000 staff to help on the frontline having processed around 950,000 claims in the last two weeks.

“The Prime Minister and Chancellor have repeatedly encouraged people to claim Universal Credit if their income has been affected, and we keep our website up to date with specific coronavirus information to help people.

“Urgent advances are available and more than 70,000 new claimants since 16 March have already received one. We’ve also increased the standard allowance so claimants will be up to £1,040 a year better off.”





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