Council hears of universal credit's impact

THE UK government’s Inverness-piloted universal credit benefits scheme is destroying lives according to councillors.

The much-criticised system inflamed tempers yet again this week in a debate at Highland Council’s care, learning and housing committee meeting in Inverness.

Councillors heard there had been a 15.4 per cent increase in the number of people aided by the local authority’s welfare support team and local Citizens Advice Bureau (Cab) in the past year.

The intervention helped 17,590 clients obtain more than £24 million – up from the 15,248 people assisted in the previous year – and was mainly attributable to universal credit and adverse decisions relating to employment and support allowance.

Referencing an increase in rent arrears among council tenants not in receipt of benefits, the SNP’s Inverness Ness-side councillor Ron MacWilliam said: "This is a concerning trend."

Liberal Democrat group leader Alasdair Christie, who also runs the Inverness Cab, added: "If ever you wanted to devise a system that destroyed the fabric of people’s confidence, made them lurch towards poverty, made them feel disempowered, then this is it.

"That’s what universal credit has done to many people, over many months.

"It takes up an inordinate amount of time of housing officers, of social workers, of housing support staff, of the council’s in-house income maximisation team, of Cab, of clinicians, GPs and nurses."

He suggested the benefit reform had ultimately cost society a "phenomenal" amount of money that should have been better spent.

Attempting to lift the mood of the debate, council leader Margaret Davidson said there had been "huge and successful lobbying around universal credit right from the start," which had resulted in some improvements.

She cited housing benefits for temporary accommodation being taken out of universal credit.

"It means those people in temporary accommodation do not start with a massive debt, which is what was happening," she said.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "Universal credit is working for the vast majority who claim it.

"We’ve already made significant improvements, such as 100 per cent advances which support people before their first payment, removing the seven waiting days, and two weeks’ extra housing support for claimants moving onto universal credit.

"We continue to spend around £90 billion a year supporting people who need it, including those who are out of work or on a low income.

"Work is the best means of providing people with financial security and, with our welfare reforms, people are moving into employment faster and staying there longer than under the old system."