Brexit and Universal Credit has again dominated the headlines since Friday. Friday, marked TWO significant developments for Universal Credit in particular.
Danielle Johnson, Claire Woods, Erin Barrett and Katie Stewart, represented by Leigh Day and supported by Child Poverty Action Group WON their ‘David and Goliath’ style LANDMARK judgement against the Secretary of State and DWP.
10 minutes after the historic judgement was passed, the Secretary of State RT Hon Amber Rudd MP, took to the podium in Kennington Jobcentre, in South London not to comment on the judgement (which she has still failed to do officially), but to deliver her, ‘Universal Credit: Personal Welfare’ Speech to a waiting press. In a bid to make UC more “compassionate” and “considered” in its approach. Five KEY developments and changes were announced:
1. A £250m extension of ‘two-child’ is being scrapped.
That’s not entirely true, what is more accurate is, that retrospectively enforcing a 2-Child limit has been scrapped, but still applies to children born after April 2017
2. It will be easier for women to get the payments they deserve - with UC payments going directly to a family’s “main carer” [usually, but not always a women]
3. More people will have rent paid directly to their Landlords [especially Private Landlords, who have been deterred from taking tenants on Universal Credit]
4. You will be able to get paid more than once a month
Most importantly for this petition and ‘Make Childcare Work’ Campaign
5. You MIGHT NOT be forced to pay for Childcare Up-Front.
Rudd, went on to say, “I recognise this can cause financial difficulty, with some claimants struggling to pay upfront or report their costs on time”.
If this is the case, as we well know, WHY then only MIGHT, opposed to WON’T. That’s because there are of course certain stipulations that have to be met, before you can receive this help as Rudd reported, namely: “... I’ve instructed jobcentres that if the initial month’s childcare cost prevent a claimant from starting work, the Flexible Support [FSF] should be used to help smooth the transition for this priority group.
“Second, I’ve decided we should be flexible when parents are unable to report their childcare costs immediately, so that these costs will be reimbursed.
“Taken together, these improvements will help to drive the take-up of childcare, as we strive to close the lone parent gap and further boost female employment rates”.
In principle, it sound like a VICTORY in the Universal Credit Vs Childcare Battle. It’s certainly a welcome announcement, but as we well know, policy and reality open starkly differ when it comes to Universal Credit.
No one knows this more so than my fellow #MumOnAMission and Parliamentary mum, Vikki Waterman. As an Administrator, Vikki is HIGHLY organised and always submits and reports her expenses on time, but yet again on Christmas Eve, the DWP failed to credit Vikki’s account with the £600 due - she received NOTHING!
Leaving and her two daughters £600 out of pocket on Christmas Eve, and not knowing if she could even return to work in the New Year as she couldn’t cover her childcare costs. Even now Vikki has not been given a satisfactory explanation by DWP after spending hours at a time, day after day, even being hung up on, trying to get through to the DWP to resolve this issue. She has still only received half her entitled payment to date.
During our evidence session with the Work and Pensions Select Committee in October 2018, Vikki shared her experience of being fined £50 for a late payment by her childcare provider, because she DIDN’T receive her UC payment on time. My own son was suspended from his original nursery and I was hit with an £800 bill to be paid immediately - as a result I could not afford for my son to return to nursery for another 6 months.
It is precisely, these type of fluctuations, miscalculations and enormous monthly variation in UC payments that was cited by the four fellow Mums at the High Court as being the “fundamental problem” with Universal Credit - which was agreed by Lord Justice Singh and Mr Justice Lewis, who found in the mum’s favour.
So whilst this signals a really positive start, it doesn’t go nearly far enough to eradicating the MAJOR FLAWS of Universal Credit, that have so many of us in the UK suffering unnecessarily.
This is a view I shared when speaking to Andy Bell, Political Editor of Channel 5 News (as shown in clip), and also Tom Rayner, Political Correspondent at Sky News on Friday, regarding my reaction to Rudd’s speech.
I also found, The Mirror, Online Political Editor, Dan Bloom’s article on Rudd’s speech particularly good. He not only lays out the 5 things that ARE due to be changed, he also looks at the 5 that AREN’T including the controversial 5 week wait and assessment period. I highly recommend this article as a MUST READ: https://bit.ly/2sr76SI
There was one thing in Rudd’s speech that, dare I say it, I wholeheartedly believe to be true. On the subject of ‘Women’s Economic Empowerment’ Rudd asserted that, “Women can never be TRULY FREE until they have ECONOMIC INTERDEPENDENCE”.
If that is TRULY her belief, then it should be one she ENSURES will be extended to working mothers, whose biggest barrier in doing so is CHILDCARE - way beyond just the upfront costs. Of the two childcare providers my 2 year old has been registered with, the first charged £1,800 per month, that’s nearly £22,000 annually and his current provision is £1,500 per month for a full time place, still a whopping £18,000 per year. So, it would be fair to say upfront costs, whilst being a barrier, are far from the only barrier faced by working families, especially working single mums, who as the Work and Pensions Select Committee Report in December stated, would be adding 80 million workings hours alone, in the 100 million working hours increase proposed under Universal Credit.
We still have a CHANCE to GET Universal Credit RIGHT! On Wednesday 16th January, Westminster Hall debate, 11:00am - 11:30am: Representations by Members of Parliament to the Department for Work and Pensions on behalf of constituents (Kate Osamor, Lab, Edmonton)
If you haven’t already done so, this is the PERFECT opportunity to write to your local MP and urge them to attend Wednesday debate, most importantly put forward your concerns and experiences ! There’s a template in my last update that you can easily copy and paste for inspiration.
As always, please SIGN, please SHARE this PETITION but most importantly YOUR STORIES - ‘WE CAN’ and ‘WE WILL DO IT” and ‘MAKE CHILDCARE WORK’ under Universal Credit!
Thuto & Kayan x
#MumOnAMission #MakeChildcareWork #MotivationMonday
Credit: Clip Courtesy of Channel 5 News - YouTube Channel