Universal Credit — a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
[Originally Published on 8 January 2018]
by Dr Brigitte Anton
By the end of 2017, most people have now realised that Universal Credit is a fake sheep, and underneath is a wolf that keeps howling on people’s doorstep.
UC combines six very different benefits into one — in work benefits like working tax credits, out-of work benefits like JSA, and sickness benefits like ESA — they have very different functions, and are now put together under one umbrella, with more punitive sanctions attached than ever before.
If you are working, you are punished for low pay, punished for not getting enough hours, punished for not looking hard enough for another job while you are working already.
If you are unemployed, you are punished for not working, punished if you are not looking for work 35 hours a week, punished if you don’t take any job quickly.
If you are ill or disabled, you need to go for a work capability assessment (this is not a new feature, but exists since 2008). To cut a long story short, you need to be a corpse to be able to be declared too ill to work or disabled — doctors’ sick notes, assessments and reports are rendered insignificant, because your private company assessor with often no medical background is your master who decides if you are getting money, or not.1 It does not take much to understand the stress caused by this to claimants who are not well in the first place. There have been many deaths, suicides and attempted suicides reported in relation to the Welfare Reform, so it is obvious that the system is not working.2
Oh and don’t be late! That could give you a sanction, depending on who is dealing with you.
There is pressure on Social Security staff to impose sanctions that mean a claimant may end up at a food bank. Scared to endanger their own work and ending up on the other side of the desk, staff will comply, unless the Trade Unions will step up their campaigns in supporting staff who refuse.
Universal Credit has a completely flawed attitude towards work and looking for work, and this is one that is not often examined. There seems to be a widespread blanket view that work is good for you. However, this is never qualified in terms of WHAT kind of work is good for you? Well, since many of the top brass in the Conservative Party come from money and connections, how would they know what it is like to be looking for work and forced to take a job you are not suitable for, underpaid, doesn’t use your skills and qualifications, is not a long-time solution and sets people up for failure after failure. It seems, as long as you are given a shovel or a call-centre place, you should be grateful. Never mind that you can’t shovel to save your life.
You wonder why the UK has such a low productivity rate? No, it is not the disabled, Mr Hammond3, but rather too many people in the wrong jobs (as well as low pay, lack of training and bad work-conditions). Work is perceived as a punishment for the poor, while for people with money, property and connections, it is seen as an expression of self-fulfilment. So, the proverbial goose and gander are treated very differently here.
This attitude towards work is also not good for any business or organisation. If you want to be a highly productive and inventive company, you want employees who actually want to be there, like what they are doing, and are suited to the job.
What does the Welfare Reform and Universal Credit actually do to help people find suitable and sustainable employment?
You are assigned a ‘Work Coach’ to help you find work. They are already calling some of the Social Security staff here in Northern Ireland, ‘Work Coaches’ to give them a more professional glossing, but these are not qualified ‘Work Coaches’. Shoving ‘Jobcentre Online’ under your nose and basically telling you to apply for something isn’t work coaching in my book. The new ‘Jobmatch’ website, also does not seem to be functioning well.4
Spending some money and actually training staff properly to help people find the right job is not part of Universal Credit.
There is also a total lack of understanding of the job market, CV writing, the application process and going for interviews by Tory policy makers, who again probably never had had to look for a job in the first place. If you are a qualified tradesperson or graduate, having temporary after temporary low-paid positions just does not look good to a prospective employer. The view that ‘at least you show you are working’ doesn’t hold — especially since on many application forms, you have to give your last salary, or list every salary you had under your description of previous jobs. Constant low-paid salaries show organisations that you aren’t worth much.
What we also need is to take a hard look at the job application processes. Why do people have to fill in application forms squeezing the same information from your CV into small columns. Why do we write a CV in the first place? Why not a CV and a short response to questions on the essential criteria, rather than copying and pasting information that you already have in a handy 2 page document? I suspect employers want to find out that you are really desperate for the job and are willing to give hours of your life squeezing information into a word document or online form. By the time you finish, most likely you do not want that job any more, and just sent it off, because you spent so many hours on it you won’t get back. Often, you realise half-way through the essentials that they do in no way match the original job description and that they were written for a specific person in mind.
And don’t get me started on the ‘anonymous’ monitoring forms, that ask you for your date of birth or other criteria that make it very obvious as to who has filled in the form.
I find more and more that the application process is not fit for purpose, because at the end of the day, the person who can sell themselves best (and has the most patience filling in forms) wins, not necessarily who can do the job best. I haven’t found the perfect solution to this, but basically, the process is not fair, equal and as an interviewer, you can slip in your biases any time (and yes, I have sat on the other side of the table, so I do know this…). Also, often, there is already somebody in the pipeline for the job, but the organisations have to advertise.
People who want to be their own boss, who are entrepreneurial and willing to put many hours into their work and business, also don’t fare well with Universal Credit. UC for the self-employed is assessed on a monthly basis, with no discretion for the natural peaks and troughs of self-employed work. After a year in business, policy makers for UC expect you to earn a certain amount a month, or else tell you to find another job. Most businesses or freelancers may just break even after a year — it takes time to build up a business and find clients. The way UC is designed will lead to many self-employed people being forced to give up their freelance work or businesses.5
The Labour Party needs to work on developing a system that supports peoples’ potential, not one that sees you as a skiver from the onset and just tries to get rid of you.
What I would like to see is what I call ‘an Unemployed Academy’. Basically, if you are unemployed, you will be properly mentored, have trained recruitment consultants, trainers and career advisors helping you find sustainable work, but it is not a top-down punitive programme like previous work programmes, but claimant-led, maybe even on some co-operative basis. To be fit for the present competitive world of work, we all need the best training and support, especially for those who so far have fallen through the net of opportunities. Collective and co-operative ways of employment should also be developed and supported more. However, do not give that job to a private company,6 this should be run by the state, and for the benefit of society in the long run, with a long-term future vision. And no, that vision should not be cuts and ‘kick the poor’, thank you very much.
Motivating people into work by sanctioning does not work. Strangely enough, when it comes to elite groups, money seems to be seen as a biggest motivator. We are told that MPs need more money, because ‘we need to pay top people top wages.’ CEOs in charitable organisations get huge pay packets, because charities want the ‘best’ people, while the rest can volunteer. However, if you are ambitious on the dole and don’t want to take a job that pays pittance and which is not suitable, try to tell them that you are a top person and want top wages. Go on…!
Poverty and unemployment are complex issues. To take the big stick of sanctions to them does not work. If you wonder why people are not working, maybe look at what is on offer, on structures, barriers, lack of education, lack of opportunities or simply lack of money — if you wonder why somebody is a ‘scrounger’ and not a ‘striver’ , maybe ask yourself if that person was ever given an opportunity to strive and shine? Forcing people into a job by sanctioning them and literally starving them into submission should not be the response of a civilised government.
Universal Credit is not working. It’s designed to crush people, not to bring out the best and best work in people. Try to go to a job interview hungry and while you are worried about putting the next meal on the table. Some people may think this is an incentive, I think it is a disgrace.
Dr Brigitte Anton is a Historian, Web Editor, Writer, and Labour Activist, who takes pride in her work. She has a wealth of experience in being on the dole in Northern Ireland, gained by periods of unemployment.She is also the maybe not so proud author of 100s of job applications.
Notes:
1…You certainly do not get any extra money anymore if you have limited capacity for work, see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-changes-to-limited-capability-for-work-payments/changes-to-limited-capability-for-work-payments-in-universal-credit
3…http://uk.businessinsider.com/philip-hammond-blames-low-productivity-on-disabled-workers-2017-12
4…http://infoism.co.uk/2013/04/the-experiences-of-one-jobseeker-in-using-universal-jobmatch-a-worrying-sign-for-universal-credit/ Article is from 2013, but if you look at the comments, not much seems to have changed.
6…There has been plenty of evidence that when private companies try to find work for the unemployed as part of various Social Security policies, it is rather detrimental for the claimants. See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iain-duncan-smiths-work-programme-fails-to-find-work-for-70-per-cent-of-people-a6703136.html
