Universal Credit “needs to be scrapped” and legacy benefits should remain in place, a campaigner has argued.
The benefit administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is replacing six other payments, known as “legacy benefits”.
These include: Housing Benefit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Child Tax Credits (CTC), Working Tax Credits (WTC) and Income Support.
However, concerned Britons are urging the Government to reconsider its decision and “scrap” Universal Credit instead.
Campaigners are calling for Universal Credit 'to be scrapped'
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Campaigner Geoffrey Rutlidge has started a petition to get Parliament to debate the issue and consider keeping legacy benefits.
He is also pushing for the Government to bring an end to the “unfair sanctioning” of benefit claimants.
Mr Rutlidge explained: “The reason why Universal Credit needs to be scrapped and for legacy benefits to be reinstated is I think it is making a lot of people worse off and putting them into debt, into poverty and putting them at increased risk of bankruptcy and homelessness.
“Claimants who make a claim for Universal Credit have to wait for up to at least five or six weeks before they receive their first payment which can make it very difficult for people to have the ability to buy food and pay their bills and rent.”
Anyone else concerned about the change from legacy benefits to Universal Credit can sign the petition as well.
It will take at least 10,000 signatures for Mr Rutlidge to get any sort of response from the Government.
If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the proposal to keep legacy benefits will be debated in Parliament.
As of today, Mr Rutlidge’s petition to scrap Universal Credit has only 91 signatures.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
The DWP has confirmed the new rates for Universal Credit from April 2024 PAThe DWP has been phasing out legacy benefits in lieu of the streamlined Universal Credit for a number of years but temporarily paused this move due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is no longer possible for future claimants to put forward a new claim for any of the impacted legacy benefits.
Those already in receipt of any of the six payments will have to move onto Universal Credit by 2029 at the latest.
A claimant could stay on a legacy benefit if their situation changes in particular ways, for example, if they have moved to a new council area.