I am petitioning the Secretary of State for Employment and the minister responsible for the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) to request urgent changes are made to the way Universal Credit is delivered. The government believe that one size fits all.
However many people like myself are finding that their personal / family circumstances are not catered for. They are also finding themselves financially worse off and struggling to meet household commitments and bills.
To give a clearer indication of why I am doing this I would like to tell you about my situation / circumstances. I hope this will help clarify my opinion that Universal Credit needs changing.

I am a husband and father to two teenage children. I am self employed. People like myself, are trying to earn their own money rather than be reliant on state benefits or be in low paid employment / on zero hour contracts.

In May 2017 I came off of Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) to start my own business.
In January 2018 I had to switch over to Universal Credit from the old Tax Credits system. As part of the transfer process I had to take out an advance to meet financial and housing commitments while my claim was being processed. This application took some 6 weeks to complete.

After my application was processed I was told that I was then deemed entitled to receive too much UC. This was due to my low income / circumstances from being newly self employed. I was told I would now be subject to the government benefit cap. (Under the previous Tax Credits system I was exempt from this as I was working more than the required number of hours even if I was not receiving much in the way of an income after expenses).

I also had to start repaying the advance loan to the DWP. I managed to secure a postponement of 3 months while I continued to adjust to continue to work / build my business. Once the 3 months were up the DWP started to deduct £150.00 per month from my entitlement. I have tried to negoiate with Universal Credit to reduce the amount they are taking each month to try and help improve finances. They have refused and continue to deduct £150.00 per month.

As part of my commitments to UC I have to report my self employed income and expenses to the DWP. There are further implications in the form of the fact that if my ‘take home pay’ is more than £192.00 per month I am subject to further deductions from my UC entitlement at the rate of 67p in the pound for every pound earned above this figure. This runs in conjunction with the deductions already being made for the benefit cap and the repayment of the UC advance.
I am now in the position where 12 months has since passed and I have almost paid off my advance. I am now however subject to a minimum income floor (MIF) level rather than the benefit cap. I am expected to be taking home over £1000 per month every month after all associated business costs and expenses. This will also include deductions for income tax and NI in the future ( as yet I am still below the threshold for income tax due to low earnings).
I am not at this level as yet and as such I have had further money deducted from my UC entitlement as a consequence of this. This deduction is in the region of £300 per month on top of the deduction for advance repayments.
After paying my private rent I am left with around £70 per month of my UC payment to go towards costs for a normal family of 4.
The government and UC expects someone building a business from scratch to achieve enough business / work to equal a regular take home pay of over £1000 every month within a timeframe of just 12 months. A new business can take up to 3 years to achieve something like this level of income.

I have been told that my only only option now is to readdress my focus and seek normal paid employment while receiving what was JSA under the umbrella of Universal Credit.. I may be able to continue some of my business in my spare time. This could spell the end of my business and destroy many months of hard work. This is not something I would want to happen.

Universal Credit does not cater for self employed people. The government welcome people becoming self employed as they have no need to claim JSA. However they still dictate how much you have to earn. Universal Credit is a double edged sword for the self employed.

One way to alleviate this problem for the self employed is to increase the amount of time given to build a business from 12 months to 24 or even 36 months. This is a more realistic timeframe to work within and allows somene to be able to analyse whether it will become fully viable and if not still have time to make changes without being penalised.

Another solution is to increase the amount a person is allowed to earn before deductions at the rate of 67p in the pound. The limit is currently set at £192.00 per month.
The limit should be £192.00 per week. If someone exceeds this weekly then fair enough their UC should be reduced or adjusted as they would not need so much in the way of UC benefit.
However, someone like me, trying to build a business, someone in a low paid job or on a zero hours contract who doesn’t achieve this level of income should not be subject to penalties for what the government / DWP deem is too much Universal Credit.

To compound things further a person who has never worked / is out of work is not subject to any minimum income level and as such can actually be more financially better off on UC than those who are self employed person or in a low paid job.
It is these people that the government need to focus on. If their UC was reduced, it could incentivise them to look for and gain work. This is the only time where the ethos of UC would work.

People who are working albeit for low pay / trying to earn their own money are simply being penalised by the system at every turn.
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I believe that this benefit needs to be abolished entirely and replaced with a more flexible, more representative benefit system that caters for individual circumstances.

The previous system of Working Tax & Child Tax Credit worked far better than this new ‘universal’ credit. People knew exactly how much money they were to receive each week and could budget accordingly.
This new system is paid monthly and the amount can vary from one month to the next due to unfair deductions and sanctions.

When it comes to Universal Credit, one size does definitley not fit all !

If you feel the same as me, and/or are in the same position then please add your name to my petition. If it receives enough signatures then my petition will have to be addressed by parliament and could even be discussed within the House of Commons to try to and get Universal Credit changed or abolished.