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Showing posts with label Universal Credit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Universal Credit. Show all posts
Self-employed on Universal Credit to get business support
Recipients of Universal Credit full service who are self-employed can now receive business mentoring if their earnings are low.
This programme of support for people who are already self-employed builds on the success of the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) programme. The NEAoffers mentoring, a weekly allowance for 6 months and access to a start-up loan to people who are out of work and would like to start their own business. Figures out today show that over 111,000 businesses have already been started with the support of the NEA.
This is part of the government's commitment to small businesses. Initial mentoring can last for up to 12 weeks and includes workshops on topics including financial planning and marketing support, as well as help in creating a business development and growth plan. If the plan is viable, people can receive a further year of support and mentoring.
The latest NEA figures show that the north-west had the highest number of start-ups (17,020) followed by London (13,410) and Yorkshire and the Humber (12,150).
Minister for Employment Damian Hinds said:
The NEA has been a huge success in supporting enterprising jobseekers turn their business dreams into a reality, and now we're offering mentoring to help people in receipt of Universal Credit who are already self-employed as they grow their businesses.
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and we want to do all we can to ensure people succeed.
The figures also show that of the people who have started up a business with NEA support:
over two thirds were aged between 25 and 49, 24% were over the age of 50 and 7% were aged between 18 and 24
40% were women
22% have a self-declared disability
13% were from a black and minority ethnic (BME) background
111,540 businesses have been set up through the NEA scheme. The financial support is paid as a weekly allowance of £65 a week for 13 weeks and then £33 for the following 13 weeks (a total of £1,274 over 26 weeks)
Mentoring is available to Universal Credit full service claimants whose business income fall below, or looks set to fall below, their Minimum Income Floor.
People who already own their own business are eligible for mentoring, but not for the financial support aspect of the scheme.
Successful applicants to the NEA start-up support get access to a business mentor, and those who start their business can receive financial support for up to 6 months, mentoring support for up to 12 months and may be able to apply for a loan of up to £25,000 to help with start-up costs.
Peabody Trust says 42-day wait means 60,000 households, with over 40,000 children, will receive no income until after festive season
Ministers have insisted that the impact of the wait for a first payment is mitigated by the availability of advance payments. However, a recent MPs’ report concluded that the loans offered only limited help because claimants could borrow only the equivalent of up to two weeks’ universal credit income to tide them over the 42-day wait.
A child eating Christmas lunch at the Newcastle West End food bank. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Claimants signing on to universal credit from this week will not receive any income before Christmas because of the existing 42-day wait for payment, putting the finances of tens of thousands of households at risk, according to a housing association.
The Peabody Trust estimates that nationally more than 60,000 households, containing more than 40,000 children, will make new universal credit claims in the six weeks before Christmas, and so will not receive any income in the run-up to the festive season.
The trust calculated that even if the wait were to be cut to four weeks, 27,000 children across 40,000 households would still be affected. Reducing the wait to two weeks would leave an estimated 20,000 households, containing 14,000 children, at risk of having no cash over Christmas.
MPs and peers will debate universal credit on Thursday afternoon, amid speculation that ministers were planning to cave in to mounting pressure and cut the current minimum six-week waiting time to four weeks.
The lengthy wait for a first payment has been blamed for spiralling rent arrears and rising food bank referrals. More than half of new low-income claimants are used to budgeting on a weekly or fortnightly basis, and few have savings.
Although ministers have signalled that they are prepared to shorten the waiting time to four weeks, campaigners have warned this may still be too long for many households, and that further cuts to the waiting time should be considered.
On Wednesday it emerged that a private landlord in Grimsby had formally warned tenants on universal credit that it would move to evict them if they were unable to meet rent payments. New claimants in north-east Lincolnshire will move to universal credit on 13 December.
Call to ‘pause and fix’ universal credit roll-out on the Isle of Wight
The call to ‘pause and fix’ universal credit being fully rolled-out across the Isle of Wight will be highlighted by members of Isle of Wight Labour Party during a day of action in Newport on Saturday.
Deep concerns about the impact of the full roll-out of Universal Credit across the Isle of Wight will be highlighted during a day of action this coming weekend.
Colleen Brannon from the Ryde branch of the Isle of Wight Labour Party has been in touch with details.
Call to “pause and fix universal credit” Campaigns Officer, Colleen, explained to OnTheWight,
“We’re are asking the government to pause and fix universal credit, due to fully roll out on the Island in 2018/19.
“We welcome reform to simplify the benefits system and make work pay, but Universal Credit as it stands represents a huge cut in the support of hard working households and vulnerable people, and has problems inherent within the system that have been shown to lead to spiralling debt, poverty and eviction.”
More details of the £1.5 billion package of support for Universal Credit
The measures announced include:
local authorities being able to recoup over 80% of the money they spend on temporary accommodation directly from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) rather than from the claimant, preventing losses of more than £70 million over 2018/19
extended partnership working with Citizen’s Advice, to provide more face to face support to Universal Credit claimants
This follows the package of improvements for new claimants announced in yesterday’s Autumn Budget, including:
Abolishing the 7 waiting day period to reduce the wait for payment from 6 weeks to 5 from February 2018
extending the repayment of advances from 6 to 12 months, and allowing people to receive 100% of their payment upfront from January 2018 (people who make a claim in December can get a 50% advance, and then in January can ask for a top up to 100%)
making it possible for people to apply for advances online from spring 2018, making it even easier for a claimant to access an advance if they need it
paying an additional 2 weeks’ of housing costs after the end of someone’s Housing Benefit claim and into their Universal Credit claim from April 2018
making it easier for claimants to continue having their housing costs paid directly to landlords once they are on Universal Credit
To allow these improvements to be made as quickly as possible, we will also be changing the rate of Universal Credit full service rollout for 3 months from February 2018 to 10 jobcentres a month, increasing to 41 in May 2018.
The timetable of the Universal Credit full service transition has been updated.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions David Gauke has today announced DWP customer telephone lines will be changed to Freephone numbers.
Universal Credit customer telephone lines will be the first to become Freephone in November.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions David Gauke said:
We know that many people prefer to use online services and the vast majority of claims to Universal Credit are made online.
Everyone can check their statement and engage with their work coach through their online account and we have free wifi and computers in all our jobcentres.
Our work coaches support anyone who needs extra help with their online account but we want to make the process as burden free as possible, including for people who use our telephone service. That’s why we are making all our customer phone lines free to use.
The department will inform customers and partners of new Freephone numbers in advance of these changes.
Freephone numbers will be rolled out to all remaining DWP customer phone services by the end of the year. Further details will be released in due course.
Universal Credit
Most claims to Universal Credit full service are made online (99%).
Applications for Universal Credit are made online and claimants then arrange their first appointment with their work coach over the phone. Currently this call is charged at local rates which are set by providers and are free for many people as part of their call package. If someone is concerned about the cost, they can request a free call back.
Universal Credit claimants can update any changes in circumstances, check on their payments and rearrange appointments 24 hours a day through their online journal.
