DWP’s own statistics show Universal Credit is a failure!

DWP has this week released data on Universal Credit that reveal the policy is failing! DWP can’t polish or even roll the Universal Credit turd in glitter

Do we need calls from every quarter that UC isn’t working when the DWP’s own figures prove this to be the case?  Why are all these calls about slowing down the roll out of UC when they should be about abandoning it?

Why the DWP data reveals the policy is failing is clear cut and the following two graphs on that data make clear.

Graph 1 – Those on UC for 6 months or more

The data shows a 36% increase in those who have been receiving Universal Credit for more than 6 months from 46.76% to 63.55%.  Yet if Universal Credit was working as intended it would show that those claiming for more than 6 months would reduce as claimants would no longer need it.

Those not working for any length of time are told in Universal Credit that they have to take up even a part-time job at the minimum wage and travel up to 90 minutes each way to that job.  They sign the claimant commitment to do that standard effect and all at risk of sanction if they do not take up such a lowly paid and part-time job that can be 100 miles away.

Those on Universal Credit for longer periods eg for more than 6 months are especially sanctioned and at risk of sanction because of the standard claimant commitment they sign and legally contract to take up the most menial short-term part-time employment with a three hour per day travelling time element.

That means those on Universal Credit should be on it for decreasing levels of time yet the opposite is revealed in the DWP data released this week and thus Universal Credit is failing and a failure.

Graph 2 – % of UC claimants in employment

If Universal Credit was working correctly then those in employment would be a reducing percentage over time yet the data reveals stagnation and the same percentage (note the figure for August 2017 is a  DWP estimate not actual data.)

The actual data from August 2016 to July 2017 sees the percentage of Universal Credit claimants in work actually fall from 38.83% to 38.63% and so the policy is not working and even with the increased threat of sanction for not taking up part-time work at minimum wage that Universal Credit imposes in its claimant commitment.

Any Government can claim to have a record number of people in work as if unemployment remains at a constant 5% percentage figure and if you have a rising population then you will get a record number of people in work each and every year.

Yet the Conservative Government is also stating a record percentage of people in work and that is a different issue and makes the actual fall in the percentage of those in work and receiving Universal Credit data even worse.

A higher percentage in work by direct consequence of Universal Credit would show an increase in UC claimants in work yet the DWP data shows the opposite. Put simply if we do have a record percentage in work then they are not getting into work by the Universal Credit route but outside of it.

Universal Credit has been in place for 4 years and still we only see it applying to around 5% of those it is intended to apply to.  We have had delay upon delay with worse excuse each time as to the latest delay reason and each time such excuse wears thinner and thinner.  Each time we get Universal Credit data the policy is exposed as not working and a failure and it is way past time for the policy to be abandoned.

Universal Credit does not work and does not achieve its stated aims.  Universal Credit does not work even in its ivory tower theory let alone practice and even if all the horrendous matters that have already come to light such as delay in payments, increases in sanctions, increases in rent arrears, the taking of up to 6 times more than a court would typically allow for arrears, deducting up to 40% at source (and if you read the regulations really closely it can deduct 100%) and the seven day waiting times and the target of 42 days for first payment that is regularly and increasingly not being met  – and all of these and more cock-ups are happening at just 5% coverage.

Imagine how those identified problems will worsen and increase in number as Universal Credit expands 20 fold in the full roll out!

The policy is a turkey and a dangerous turkey and it has to be abandoned not delayed because it is a turkey and because it cannot work.  Even the DWP’s own data reveals it to be a turkey and not working and this central plank of Conservative austerity policy shows that ideology triumphs over evidence and fact.

It is time we saw the wood from the trees and stopped messing about calling for even greater delays and said do to this turkey what turkeys get done to them before Christmas.