Universal Credit and your employer

thepoorsideoflife wrote:Here are two different cases concerning universal credit and work. Both prove the point extremely well that universal credit and the  work conditionionality contract linked with this is completely unworkable. Politicians from all parties are not taking this issue seriously enough. Luckily we are.

The economic tort of knowing inducement of breach of contract intends to prevent the knowing violation of the rights of an employer (or former employer) by a third party by that third party interfering with its lawful contractual arrangements without just cause.

you will be expected to prepare for a move into work, additional work, or better paid work.

If you are earning below your threshold you will be expected to make efforts to increase your income. The DWP suggest that this may include increasing the hours you work, finding additional work or finding a new job with a higher income.

Absolut wrote:you will be expected to prepare for a move into work, additional work, or better paid work.

However, the Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed to Inside Housing that under the government’s flagship welfare reform, where a tenant is working less than 35 hours a week at minimum wage and is not eligible for JSA or ESA, the housing element can be sanctioned instead.

It’s odd this has suddenly been reported now - it has been a feature of UC from the outset.  It is not strictly correct to say that the housing element will be sanctioned: it would be more accurate to say that UC can be sanctioned in cases where the claimant only retains entitlement to UC after the taper is applied because there are housing costs included in the award.  For example a taper of £80 would knock out a single non-householder’s UC completely, but it would leave a “renter” with some residual entitlement.  That residual entitlement is not the housing element as such, it is just whatever is left of the UC award after the taper is applied.

For the same reasons, it could also be said that the child elements of UC can be sanctioned (it would happen where an owner occupier works part time and does not comply with work seeking conditionality).

In both cases, it is a result of conditionality and the accompanying sanctions regime extending to people who work a fair amount but tantalisingly not quite enough

2.19 Conditionality & sanctions

The Welfare Reform Act 2012 enshrines the principle that, in order to
receive financial assistance, claimants must look for work. All claimants
of UC are required to accept a claimant commitment. It is expected
that most claimants will fall into the “all work requirements” category
meaning that they must take all reasonable steps to search for work.
UC carries consequences for non-compliance and sanctions increase in
duration for repeat offences. The housing element of UC is unaffected
by these sanctions but as UC, in most cases, is paid direct to the
claimant, there are concerns that the severity of the sanctions regime
may lead to some claimants failing to prioritise rent payments. The NHF
suggested that claimants subject to a UC sanction should automatically
be switched to direct payment of the housing element to the landlord in
order to prevent the accrual of rent arrears.3

question 13:

We have been working with the Department in trying to decipher exactly where that is. Communications have gone out again to reinforce the message that housing benefit should not be stopped, but this error is still happening, so that message is not quite getting across. It is really hard to determine exactly where that is happening. One of the biggest problems is that we do not have very clear data sharing about the nature of the services that local authorities provide in issuing housing benefit and at what stage it should be started and stopped. One useful way would be to flag in the system if someone is sanctioned, to have clear communications.

20. Some claimants of sanctionable benefits like Jobseeker’s Allowance also receive
Housing Benefit to help with their housing costs. The survey by Crisis showed that a third
of respondents who had been claiming Housing Benefit at the time of their sanction had
this stopped because of the sanction.45
The Department confirmed that Housing Benefit
should not be stopped when a sanction is applied. The Department told us that it had
looked at this issue in 300 cases in one area but that it had found no evidence of the
problem.46