The Universal Credit Crisis - BBC Panorama

the government's controversial new benefits system is in

crisis

, you really don't have much to live on, we stand out on less than 30 quid and longing, if it wasn't for places like this you'd be in trouble, families left penniless have Being driven to desperation, he would sell things around the house just to attract money so he could pay back the electricity. Tenants under pressure are paying rent and some faced eviction. Honestly, a bellomont, one of the first tips to experience Universal Credit. opened its doors to our cameras are you still homeless? Now they are vulnerable people struggling to get ahead.

They now face an uncertain future. It's not going to end well. Tonight we will look at this in an overview of how a benefits system designed to encourage people to work is rather than pushing some into destitution and homelessness in North Wales, just over 20 miles from Liverpool , there is work available here, but like elsewhere in Britain, all industries are shrinking or disappearing, leaving pockets of deprivation if you are unemployed, too sick to work or on a low income. then, like millions of people, you are likely to receive benefits 18 months ago, Flincher became one of the first places in the UK to implement the new

universal

credit

benefits system.

Around three and a half thousand people here now receive

universal

credit

. Follow their experiences to see how Flint Food Bank is doing. Since last year, the number of people on benefits applying for help has doubled. One of them is a single father. James McDade had to leave his job to take care of his two-year-old son. he just had a baby, he tries to ask me what your employment situation is, why you have the right to work full time and I go out to work to do this. James is claiming universal credit. He is entitled to approximately a thousand pounds a month, but that is not what he has.

He only receives five hundred and seventy-nine pounds a month. My rent is 550 because I asked to go there. I knew the Reds got, they paid us for that. Yes, he is selling one. You really don't have much to live for. We are excited. less than 30 quid a month if it wasn't places like this you would be really in trouble, you know how you manage on a daily basis, you still belong don't you? It was a mistake with his claim and he has been left with almost nothing. to keep living, but can't figure out why the question is over, the question saw us waiting, yeah, it's one of those patient games, you have to wait and I might take, you know, I might say free ball, no, it's not fair for what I was emphasizing. your life when you also have everything else to worry about, changes lady, doesn't it?

I just don't know if you can end up on the streets or wow, when universal credit was first proposed eight years ago there was already widespread political support for ensuring work always pays more than claiming it combines six benefits including the claimant's allowance employment, working and child tax credits and, most importantly for our story, housing benefit under the old system the government paid housing benefit directly to the council and many other landlords, but it reflects the world from work universal credit is paid directly to the claimant in a monthly sum which includes the amount of rent sounds simple but works in practice a stable and stable mechanic Anthony Smith lives on Connors Key in Fincher has worked all his life when I was working in Porto Bert they asked me to come to a chaton at the steel mill and I loved it but the trailers ended so they fired me so I went to q LS that was the B report but Anthony who is 63 years old was fired again in November past.

He has not been able to find another job. There is work there. I know there is work there. Maybe it's my age. Don't know. Come on, I should be earning around £700 a month, which has to cover his rent. Good, but he had trouble coping with the new system. This is a food that has been coming from the food bank for the last two weeks. It's getting a lot less universal credit than it should, so it's trying to raise some cash anyway. Yes, that's what I. What I will sell is to take it to the pawn shop across the road, a 32k key from Snap-on would probably cost you thirty two quid.

He'd be lucky if he got three pounds of universal credit, he claims online and Anthony finds it difficult. He is not the only half of all applicants who were unable to complete the online application without assistance. Antony has rented his council house for the past two years. Good result, it turns out that because he is short of money he has not been paying the rent. I can do it quite easily. Look at me getting evicted I even looked for a place to live and found a bridge where I can live so can you imagine being homeless usually yeah why?

Cause I, Oh, I'll tear you apart, oh, right now, oh, yeah, yeah, what's 4000 pounds? No, no, its universal. The credit has been reduced some months by up to two hundred pounds, leaving him only 500 pounds because he has been sanctioned or fined after missing meetings at the Job Center. Are you playing ball? You are doing what they want you to do. The only thing I'm not playing ball with is a cat with the computer so I have to have someone down there to help me I don't know I don't understand the world has gone crazy but I'm left behind Anthony's owner is the lincher council I Have extended that accommodation for a week.

We have been following his housing department since February. You are inundated with housing emergencies every day. On Tuesday at 11 o'clock we have this interview, many of them as a result of the problems with universal credit. You are still in a homeless situation, now the biggest challenge for councils is that people are not paying their rent in September. I met with the council's head of housing. Last year we had a rent arrears situation of 1.6 million. Now they are four hundred and fifty thousand pounds worse than then. and a large proportion of that is solely attributable to universal credit.

Did you think it would be that bad? No, I didn't think I was sitting here in the conversation that says our tenant's rent arrears situation is 450k worse than before. In fact, last year Panorama found that across the UK tenants on Universal Credit are falling behind, facing rent of £663 on average, compared to £263 for those still They receive a housing subsidy that is more than double. Flint Shirt's debt rise is spectacular, with average arrears in September for those on universal credit six times higher, but it is not just councils that are not receiving their payments. Housing Association tenants on universal credit are more than twice as likely to be in rent arrears in comparison. to other tenants here in Flint Richard and Anita claim universal credit Richard works for a local transport company on a low income and are both looking for work when Richard was on sick leave in January after a car accident the family had to rely on the benefits and that's when their problems started they went to the premises, the Kinect office told them what happened they waited and waited and waited, they received a payment in December of £53, which was we couldn't pay for this, that's all we got , we could not pay the municipal tax, which was already old.

We couldn't pay the rent while he was sick, Richard lost his job. The Universal Credit Scheme showed Richard redundancy pay as his monthly income, which meant they didn't qualify for help with the council tax they paid me and which we can hand out more on any holiday. pay but universal credit seemed to think it was an ongoing payment but it was like my final payment, right that's it, this bug in the system meant that with no savings to fall back on they were in trouble, no one listening to us, bills just going up and up and up and up and up we just couldn't get out of this facing a mountain of domestic bills they prioritized paying the rent this is a notice to remember that I haven't made my council tax payments on time and then they took me to the courts for not paying municipal tax.

I sold things around the house just to make money so I could put the money back into the electricity for that week. In total, they had eight months of stress and worry when the new benefits system went into effect. and working, but could some problems with universal credit have been predicted and resolved sooner? Professor Paul Hickman was commissioned by the government to study the impact of a key element of universal credit direct payments which means giving tenants money to rent rather than landlords in his study that the majority of tenants on direct payments do not they paid the rent in full, the government changed things as a result of which your city in some ways did, but in many ways it continued and in the paths you had in mind, you were ignored.

We ignored an extremely good question. Part of what we said was heard, but only the stress. I think they were committed to the process of implementing universal credit, so in some ways, whatever we found, they were going to continue to apply our heads. I'm looking to get to know each other. someone whose story illustrates exactly what Professor Hickman was warning the government about Deeside's Keith Barber has lodged a universal credit claim which is taking weeks, while Keith Waits, 56, who relies on food banks, owes more than thousand pounds rent and you could lose your house received a letter from the council and a mention of eviction notices in a Swedish government was OSA my biggest concern has always been there, I hope the lady.

Keith has mental health problems like some benefit claimants, he is vulnerable now, why aren't you working? I lost my last job because the depression of the English colony she was showing off as a mother, it's a horrible thing, you can't be sure you'll do anything to get it. He gets up abruptly in the morning, admits his life is chaotic, he just can't change it, so one of the things about Universal Credit is that your rent will go to you, yes, what does that mean that the first chancellor's council won't it get there now? I'm terrible at reporting, I can't concentrate, that's all they do to get you to check your rent money yourself, yeah yeah, they can't do that like a money making nightmare.

I've been trying to say: I've actually borrowed this phone often, someone could call you. Antony Smith is on the phone to the council about his rent arrears. The four thousand pounds if it's not enough, that's all they can do. He is desperate to avoid eviction. Yes, I know I'm in trouble. convinced that if his Universal Credit share of the rent had been paid directly to the council, he would not be in this position. You can get the money from all the universal parties to give it to you. Antony knows that he has made things worse by missing appointments. what I have been trying to say - they keep sanctioning me no, I just explained to you that he cannot afford to miss the next one at the Employment Center he arrives on time but there is more confusion the woman who was he is on vacation for a fortnight so what they said she now you can't talk to them I couldn't make an appointment tomorrow but he said you would be sanctioned again what would mean another function more than 200 and out next month sorry I'm shaking with a bad temper night yes, wasted time, honest development, so Antony has been penalized again, he is obviously very upset and whoever is to blame, the people who will foot the bill will be the council, if too much rent is owed, the councils will evict tenants like Antony.

Last year there were more than 5,800 evictions due to rent arrears in council housing in the UK. This month, evictions of municipal tenants have increased by 55 per cent compared to the same period last year. How do you decide between evicting people and absorbing the extra money? rent arrears, that's really difficult, there comes a point where you have to make the decision to vacate. We do a lot of intensive support around that before we get to that stage, but there's a degree of inevitability where some people really won't do it. compromise, but what about those in private rented houses?

These are potatoes. Single father James is receiving less than he should, leaving him very little to live on. You know, I've worked on a new life that he was controlling and now all of a sudden I'm. He is not in control of what is happening, but no matter how desperate he is, he makes sure to pay the rent on time to his private landlord. Sixty-one per cent of private landlords with tenants on universal credit have seen them fall into arrears in the last year in Flint. Steve White rents much-needed rooms to peoplesingle on benefits 12. Yes, at the moment, but the way Universal Credit is paid could change that wellbeing.

With your help, they are not paying large sums of money to people who are struggling to get rid of the responsibility of having large sums of money in their hands and in many cases it does not reach us losses significant losses it is difficult it has had to evict people due to credit universal sadly yes that is creating a headache for the council it is Marge Cooper's work to sign up private landlords to take people on benefits three years ago she had 346 landlords on the council books now the number willing to rent to people on benefits has plummeted to just 50 Universal credit is often the deciding factor for lieutenant or star 8 pay or will you pay us directly, would you refer to Brenda's rent, but the rent will be the tenants responsibility?

The council does not have enough accommodation to house all the homeless families. Marge is under intense pressure to find a solution. Welcome to third party payments. The Department of Work and Pensions, good afternoon, this is Marge Cooper calling from Fletcher County Council, according to the government's Universal Credit website, they will consider paying rent directly to landlords, but only in certain

crisis

situations. I just want to make sure I understand this correctly. So, can March arrange that, on someone's behalf, the landlord has to originate the alternative payment arrangement request? He can't get it done by a third party so he can't make it work and the owner says he's not happy either, we can't talk to them.

I tried calling them. I was on hold for hours and in the end I ended up on the phone and the sole tenant's losses go. thousands of times that in ten or twenty installments something has to change, we cannot continue as they are, the business cannot continue as they are, local authorities across the UK are concerned about the impact of paying rent. directly to their tenants rather than directly to them, the basic reality for many families is that they see a big cut in their income and at the end of the month they are faced with the choice between feeding their children and paying them and obviously they are going to feed to their children, so the landlord will always lose out, and I think part of the changes in the credit universe that we need to try to make it work is for us to go back to paying rent directly to landlords.

Universal Credit is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions and I am on my way to meet the minister responsible for that department, so our research for the BBC shows that rent arrears for those on universal credit are double across the board the UK, double our profits. Something has gone very wrong here, hasn't it? Over a period of time people, on average, will see those areas decline, but the key point here is to make sure that people are supported in terms of funding and that's why earlier this year we introduced a valued package at one and a half billion pounds, meaning that anyone accessing Universal Credit who is currently receiving housing benefits will get an extra two weeks of running with two weeks of extra money we've been talking about, advises landlords, tenants , Let's say that the direct payment system is a big problem.

I know one of the areas you have been talking about is Flintshire and in August this year we made sure that all social landlords are covered by the landlord, everyone who wants those direct payments. restored, would you consider that as I told you, we have an owner portal and it's very possible that that happens currently and if the individual works well with these different areas it wouldn't be as high if that worked well? As I told you, by the end of this year we will have implemented the landlord portal that will cover 90 percent of the entire social sector.

It's summer during school holidays. It's nice, bright, tidier and Richard entertains the children. as best they can, they understand that we don't have a lot of money to go places, so this keeps reflecting happily, they are still trying to get back to normal after their problems with the Universal Credit System, they only solved them with the help of their local parliamentarian, but I have good news. I found a new job tomorrow will be the end of my second week so hopefully first salary tomorrow any change in income means a change in universal credit because it is paid monthly.

I have to wait to see how much they will get if Richard gets a good salary then we won't get anything so we have to keep what Richards needs most all week but if it's not what I expect then I won't do it. I don't know we'll just be panicking and panicking and panicking where can we hide these stones by the trees enjoy that I'll have to do more okay James Jonah come free with x-play today yeah just follow me today. James McDade has come to his local Citizens Advice Bureau to help him find out why his Universal Credit payment is so low.

He did everything they asked, but then for some reason, on January 23rd, the system wanted him to report it as a gang change. It's time to call. universal credit helpline sorry to keep you waiting after 40 minutes of waiting they finally get some answers. He should receive 2000 pounds 177 in his bank account today or tomorrow and then next month linked to another big 2100 and after six months of living off food banks. It's a weight that's been lifted off your shoulders. You're angry that it's taken so long. It's ridiculous, isn't it? and I won't be the only person, maybe hundreds and hundreds of people with a similar or different type of claim, the government has announced additional investment to try.

To avoid these types of problems, the large-scale launch has been delayed, but what about the issue of direct payments to tenants? Should the government think again? It's just not clear to me that, as the model adopted in England currently stands, Wales will do that. I work personally, would you rule it out? I probably would. Actually, I'd probably rule it out. Yes, is it time to scrap universal credit? This is just one of several problems. Well, universal credit is working well and we have learned in the process. We agree that it is working well, let me say that we introduced one of our billion pounds of support earlier this year.

What we have is a system that is simpler, a system that people understand and that ultimately ensures that they get to work faster and stay at work longer. earn more, there is a lot going on in your world at the time you received an eviction order, you need to make sure the wells are sorted first, well, in flincher, this month, the gap in rent owed by those who receive the Housing Benefit and Universal Credit has been reduced but overall rent arrears continue to rise, the council says universal credit is just shifting costs from central government onto them, the burden has shifted but we don't get any more money for it and in fact, in the current situation and in relation to austerity, all those impacts are classed as creating a perfect storm for us with over 1,600 homes on their waiting list, they are building new homes Hardiman yes, however, at Like other councils, rising rent arrears could put us at risk of needing to build many more genuinely affordable homes, particularly council homes, and that is more difficult if councils receive less money in their housing accounts because when areas are higher, this will affect the number of new council homes being built across the country.

A time when we desperately need more genuinely affordable housing. I got a brilliant job, yeah, or you need one. a clean-up for many families Universal Credit may have turned a corner and even helped them get work, but at what cost what do you think of Universal Credit? It's just that I was in poverty, that I was in debt, very, very stressful, although Keith Council has repeatedly tried to help. He has still missed appointments with them and the Employment Center has just told him that he will be a victim at the end of the month it is November the first staff strike is already there it did not work well it will end Antony managed to find some occasional work but it is already late well I The eviction notice has arrived.

I have to leave on the 20th at 11:30 on the 20th for this month. Where are you going? What are you doing? The city council won't give me another place if I don't pay the rent. Why should they? I am absolutely exhausted. Flincher has tested the government's benefit reforms, but that's just the start - over the next few years, thousands more families across the UK will start to move to universal credit