Universal credit creates a conveyor belt of desperate people we staff can't help

I work in the housing benefit section of my council’s customer service team and my heart drops whenever I see young single women walking through our doors.

My local authority is one of the areas trialling universal credit. Most new claims are from single, newly-unemployed people so they tend to be young people.

Officially, once the Department for Work and Pensions has said someone qualifies for universal credit, from the moment they put in the claim they are nothing to do with our council-administered housing benefit anymore and must speak only to the DWP from then on.

https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2017/nov/04/universal-credit-desperate-people-staff-cant-help-dwp-benefits-welfare-cuts