This afternoon I had the chance to watch a couple of hours of the debate in Westminster on Universal Credit. Universal Credit is a monthly payment to help those on benefits with living costs. Universal Credit will replace the following benefits:
•Child Tax Credit
•Housing Benefit
•Income Support
•income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
•income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
•Working Tax Credit
The amendment reads
Pause of Universal Credit full service roll-out
Jeremy Corbyn/Debbie Abrahams/John McDonnell/Tom Watson/Margaret Greenwood/Mr Nicholas Brown
That this House calls on the Government to pause the roll-out of Universal Credit full service.
Universal Credit was Iain Duncan Smith’s idea and has been a disaster since day one with a six week waiting period for people to be paid their first entitlement. In contrast to a new MP of course:
Unlike the hand holding support new MPs receive Universal Credit claimant’s were even charged 55pm a minute to use the advice line which allegedly has been removed today, if true at least a small victory but something that should never have been put in in the first place. Renowned for doing nothing Scottish Tory MP and SFA Referee Douglas Ross didn’t bother to even turn up to the debate. Here is what one of his constituents thinks of that:
The scumbag Tories also claim that Universal Credit helps people into employment but let’s be clear here, it is a cruel and unjust system that cost £16 Billion Pounds of tax payer money to design and doesn’t work.
The Labour amendment today is about delaying the full roll out this December which will cause potentially hundreds of thousands of families to go without money over the Christmas period and have to rely on food banks. Universal Credit has resulted in a huge rise in rent arrears and huge rise in food bank use according to the Trussell Trust. Kevin Maguire of the New Statesman has claimed that people on Universal Credit are £55 per week worse off at a time of soaring inflation and continued benefit freeze.
Tory scumbag Minister David Gauke admitted one in 25 Universal Credit claimants still aren’t paid in full TEN WEEKS after moving on to the benefit. Labours Andy Burnham pointed out that in Wigan, 4 out of 5 Universal Credit claimants (80.4%) ended in rent arrears. What’s the point of a pilot if you ignore evidence like this? In a debate on Universal Credit in Holyrood at the start of the month that arch Unionist and anything good for Scotland denier Adam Tompkins Tory MSP said that “Universal Credit … remains the right thing to do”.
The simple fact is that Universal Credit is an attack on the poor and most vulnerable by a Tory Party full of scumbags, Christina McKelvie, SNP MSP, puts it so well when she said “we have David Gauke declaring that universal credit is “transforming lives”. Yes, it is transforming lives, but not for the better; certainly not for the suffering people I see coming through my door every single day. The figures emerging on how it is “transforming lives” are from the five areas where we have had the pilots. Citizens Advice Scotland has told us that in those areas there has been a 15 per cent rise in rent arrears and an 87 per cent increase in crisis grants. Also, there has been a 40 per cent increase in one area and a 70 per cent increase in another in food bank advice”.
Says it all really, Labour could win the vote today but I doubt it and it will mean nothing if the Tories fail to turn up as they tend to do, and those that do turn up abstain, usually Labour do that, the DUP MP Sammy Wilson has just said that his party will abstain if there is a division tonight. He said the DUP was not interested in just defeating the government for the sake of making a headline. Alistair ‘ the liar ‘ Carmichael Liberal MP did provide me with some ironic giggles when he said
“This is another outrageous attempt to subvert our democracy and undermine parliament’s ability to hold the government to account.
The Conservatives should remember that contempt for parliament is contempt for the people that elect it”.
Scottish Independence Referendum anyone!
We live in a truly disgusting and morally corrupt country and for the life of me the more this goes on and the more the polls remain static on the issue of Scottish self-determination the more I lose hope in many of my fellow Scotsmen and women.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
The polls on independence seem to be static because everyone’s in a holding pattern , just waiting for the inevitable Brexit No Deal . After that its best guess scenario what will happen .
From my view point as a full time carer for my wife , Universal Credit is deliberately difficult to understand and deliberately difficult to contact , so people who have nothing and are struggling , simply give up trying to fight the system and stop claiming . This is what happens when politicians like IDS believe they have the solution to a problem they have no knowledge and hellish little understanding of .
We will vote for our independence next time , as will the EU nationals that live here , as will those from the rest of the UK , that see the futility of the Westminster based system . Next time the lies will be laughed at , they have nothing .
Ricky
I hope you are correct with the holding pattern but either way we will at least start the next campaign on 40+ and not 22 like the last time. The Tories during the debate were a disgusting bunch, even some on Labour who said they agreed with the policy but not the roll out time, bloody hell. The whole thing is designed to save money to give to the rich and to make life as difficult as they can for the most vulnerable. I watched a little of QT last night and it just amazes me how right wing England has come out to be, disgusting that they have fallen for the ToryKip mantra of being poor being the fault of the poor, many who are poor work FFS. I totally agree with you on the IDS thing, if you want to review health you speak to Doctors, if you want to review rail to speak to the rail companies, if you want to review social security you ignore the recipients because as far as the Tories and Labour are concerned they are the scum of the earth. What a shitty country.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce