02-12-2018, 13:15
This started two weeks ago after receiving letters that I had accrued rent arrears of nearly £1200 and after a visit to local council offices I was told that my HB had been cancelled and now had to apply for UC.
I have been very lucky that my housing association have helped me out this time around over the arrears but what I can pay as rent can't be decided until my UC kicks which luck will have it, will be on Xmas Eve!!
I am hoping a discretionary payment claim made on my behalf by my housing support officer ahs been successful and will clear the arrears .
Anyway I have read many reports of people having to wit until January for first payment of UC and landlords exploiting that to the max allowing rent arrears to accrue for families and individual and while I was doing my application online (as you do) I had January in mind for first payment hen I hit the buffers of doing my identification bit online it didn't work so I spent two weeks on the phone calling the hotline to get that done and Thursday I managed to get through on one option only to be told that I had come through the wrong option!!
I politely told the manager on the phone that I felt the phone system for the hotline was a complete mess and she ACTUALLY agreed with me!!
interview was last Friday at J/C - in and out in less than 10 mins flat,
no further interviews are required unless circumstances change, i.e. loss off job or change of job, then I have to go back. By far the biggest loss for me would the loss of my tax credit claim as it forms part of my UC claim and UC is based on 63% of earnings so that leaves me thinking that if you earn less one month due to illness or cut back hours you may get more the following month I am not sure There is a part on the rent section of the claim that asks if you wish rent to be paid directly to landlord and I clicked yes but was actually told at interview, that rent is actually MY responsibility!! That alone leaves me thinking, that HB should not have been made part of UC and should have been left completely alone as it always has been, then at least you knew that your housing association or landlord was been paid part of your rent through the benefit system and you had to pay your part. In any case with Govt thinking it is a clever idea to house all benefits under one roof and one single payment I actually feel it creates more flaws and leaves the system way more open to abuse by greedy landlords exploiting the loophole in payment being delayed and on the other side people who are working and already struggling to pay bills etc and essentially live on pretty much next to nothing if they have to also find the rent money. And there are the scroungers who live a blissful life knowing that they have no rent worries and are too damn lazy to even look for work!! The system should have pretty much caught these people out, but it does seem they live a charmed life because the J/C probably can't be arsed to investigate any one who is of that ilk even if a genuine person reports them and hurt scrounger cunts feelings!!
The other thing I was not advised at interview what my actual payment would be which leaves me on a limb in not being sure how much rent I have to pay!!
So I am hoping the payment on Xmas Eve that I get is correct and then I can sort out things with housing tomorrow. I have no real confidence that Amber Rudd will properly tackle the problems of UC head on and really tighten up the system yet if she does make changes I do not think the changes she may make will really make a difference to the chaos and mess of this flawed and ill - thought out idea has created any easier.
I do not know how many of us on here are affected by UC, but feel free to add your own experiences if you want to share them.
I have been very lucky that my housing association have helped me out this time around over the arrears but what I can pay as rent can't be decided until my UC kicks which luck will have it, will be on Xmas Eve!!
I am hoping a discretionary payment claim made on my behalf by my housing support officer ahs been successful and will clear the arrears .
Anyway I have read many reports of people having to wit until January for first payment of UC and landlords exploiting that to the max allowing rent arrears to accrue for families and individual and while I was doing my application online (as you do) I had January in mind for first payment hen I hit the buffers of doing my identification bit online it didn't work so I spent two weeks on the phone calling the hotline to get that done and Thursday I managed to get through on one option only to be told that I had come through the wrong option!!
I politely told the manager on the phone that I felt the phone system for the hotline was a complete mess and she ACTUALLY agreed with me!!
interview was last Friday at J/C - in and out in less than 10 mins flat,
no further interviews are required unless circumstances change, i.e. loss off job or change of job, then I have to go back. By far the biggest loss for me would the loss of my tax credit claim as it forms part of my UC claim and UC is based on 63% of earnings so that leaves me thinking that if you earn less one month due to illness or cut back hours you may get more the following month I am not sure There is a part on the rent section of the claim that asks if you wish rent to be paid directly to landlord and I clicked yes but was actually told at interview, that rent is actually MY responsibility!! That alone leaves me thinking, that HB should not have been made part of UC and should have been left completely alone as it always has been, then at least you knew that your housing association or landlord was been paid part of your rent through the benefit system and you had to pay your part. In any case with Govt thinking it is a clever idea to house all benefits under one roof and one single payment I actually feel it creates more flaws and leaves the system way more open to abuse by greedy landlords exploiting the loophole in payment being delayed and on the other side people who are working and already struggling to pay bills etc and essentially live on pretty much next to nothing if they have to also find the rent money. And there are the scroungers who live a blissful life knowing that they have no rent worries and are too damn lazy to even look for work!! The system should have pretty much caught these people out, but it does seem they live a charmed life because the J/C probably can't be arsed to investigate any one who is of that ilk even if a genuine person reports them and hurt scrounger cunts feelings!!
The other thing I was not advised at interview what my actual payment would be which leaves me on a limb in not being sure how much rent I have to pay!!
So I am hoping the payment on Xmas Eve that I get is correct and then I can sort out things with housing tomorrow. I have no real confidence that Amber Rudd will properly tackle the problems of UC head on and really tighten up the system yet if she does make changes I do not think the changes she may make will really make a difference to the chaos and mess of this flawed and ill - thought out idea has created any easier.
I do not know how many of us on here are affected by UC, but feel free to add your own experiences if you want to share them.