Carryfast:
Winseer:
I’m inclined to agree with you 100% on your read of things there.
The outstanding questions yet to be answered are
(1) How come there are so many expensive private driver-only vehicles out and about right now?
(2) How come people that are riddled with debt and those living it up on furlough - are apparently the same ones, whereas the “worried” are the same as the “Thrifty”, and therefore less likely to suffer long-term damage from the financial fallout
(3) The Tories couldn’t make UC popular originally, as it was a cutback to those on long-term benefits, and only cushy to newcomers in that once on it, the process of calculating payments then becomes automatic, with no further need to “sign on once a fortnight” as people once did for the “old style” benefits.
(4) Labour - have spoken against UC in such a way that one believes that it is only the “Tories” doing UC that they don’t like - not the flawed UC in itself. Flawed? - The 63p/£ taper would seem to start rather low down at £500 or less per month “earnings allowance”. What job can limbo THAT low? Even at minimum wages? Take that 35 hour-per-week minimum waged job though? You’re over-shooting that “non-taper-off” allowance by more than double… So much for “encouraging people without a job to take even a lower paid one”… But hey - Get a job in Leicester at £3.50ph - and you’re in!!! 
(5) Labour are also failing to point out to people that being on UC is a great time to get your finances in order across the board. There’s no need to fill in those intruding “Income expense” forms any more, as UC gets the income data automatically from HMRC using the same overlapping system once used to do Tax Credits. Without the need for an “income” form filling exercise, those chasing people for debts - can also apply to HMRC for similar data, only to find to their dismay that “This person is on benefits - no liens or attachment of earnings orders are permitted, except for county and crown court fines.” You’d think that Labour people would be telling those who’ve just lost their jobs and are unlikely to find another one any time soon to cut up their cards, and make the most of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity thus presented where HMRC and UC effectively render debtors bulletproof to all but the most secure of original debts. WIth people killing themselves and families in “murder suicides” over debt these days - It is seriously time so-called “Socialist, caring” Labour - started helping those who support them deal with their crushing debts the only way practical - wipe the slate, and start again. NOT pay £1 per week until you’re older than Methusehla, in the vain hope that the “victim” might one day “come into some money” whilst the debt is kept open, despite having already been written off at least once for tax purposes, arguably making further attempts to reclaim “dead debts” as “Fraudulant” one would think…
(6) UC doesn’t pay your poll tax any more. You’ve got to be earning less than £480 per month to get your council tax grant or even free prescriptions come to that… No WONDER those already on benefits - hate it to bits eh?
I’ve been on it for over a year now.
(1) It’s good in the sense of its flexibility ( IF ) you’re lucky enough to find some work.
It works well with ZHC in that if you drop hours on some weeks, you effectively lose less of that 63% taper-off… Less is more?
( 2 ) Council tax relief is graduated subject to income it’s not subject any actual threshold other than a £15,000 savings threshold.Which is bleedin obvious because a minimum wage part time, even full time, let alone zero hours job ain’t going to pay >£2500 pa council tax bill + water + commuting, electric and gas.
Council tax varies by such a huge amount around the nation, but am I right in thinking that Renters don’t pay it?
The threshold for entitlement to council tax credits - seems a bit low, at 400 and something per MONTH. What even part time @ minimum wage job - gets you there when those type of jobs, as you state - go straight to the sheds-with-beds crowd?
( 3 ) I don’t hate it at all it’s a bleedin lifeline combined with council tax relief.
I’m told it “isn’t as good as the outgoing system”. I’m not sure why that is, but I’d hazard a guess that the amount you get went DOWN, meaning if you are not working and continue not to work, then the headline rate you receive has gone down… =Worse off. If you’re just going onto it for the 1st time however? - Dunno. Jury is still out on that one.
( 4 ) I’m only in this position now because of the amount that my savings had been decimated by low interest rates over the last 13 years.
I didn’t have enough savings to move into the stock market like I wanted to, so just kept my current account in the black - until one day, the work dried up, and now even that’s gone, with me into my overdraft facility - just as the current account decides to raise their rates on overdrafts to 400x the BoE base rate on… Cheers then!
(5) It’s obvious that a 66 + retirement age is unsustainable in a high labour supply environment.To the tune of 472 other applicants for a recent application.Who are they going to choose the 20 something east euro or the over 60’s Brit with a knackered back. This government appear to be moving thousands of young males to do the donkey work in as we speak. Labour should be proud of how “Red” the Tories have become! 
(6) The responsibilities and commitment to seek work is the same as ever.It involves regular meetings in person and maintaining a detailed online journal concerning applications and answering any requests from the office.
Any failures or discrepancies there you’re toast.
I’d disagree with you on that last point six one, as no one is meeting ANYONE - because of the lockdown - right?
…That means that in the months to come, this pressure to “get a job at both ends” - will quietly be shelved, leaving people who are going to find themselves stuck on UC for quite a while, maybe years - “unmolested”.
No point threatening “Benefit Sanctions” for “not applying for enough jobs”, when as you say hundreds of applicants for a single vancancy is now the norm…
Points of opportunity in the months ahead:
September - Long term contract agency tend to be taken on around then.
Christmas Run-Up - Might be a shadow of it’s former self, but what happens if agencies get 10,000 applicants for those “permantenly available shifts, regular and ongoing” which amount to Johnny Sickie’s two days of absence this coming week, and minimum wages now at that?
New Year Onwards - If Brexit stalls at the last minute, the infrastructure jobs won’t be up-and-running in time, so we just take a deeper angled dive into full blown slump…
The one good thing I can think about with regards to UC is that if you get “spotty” work, one shift this week, bugger all for a fortnight, a shift cancelled at the last minute in week four, and then a full week coinciding with a week you’ve just picked up something better elsewhere… You don’t have to “sign off, fail to get the work offered, then sign back on quick” any more.
Your UC goes up and down according to how much money you TOOK HOME rather than “got promised, but didn’t materialize”…
Watch out for those agencies who’ll fiddle their sign-ups something rotten though - on the basis “We promised you, but there’s no legal obligation for Blogg’s Agency to deliver. What you gonna do small guy? Can’t afford to sue us, no guns allowed to shoot us with, legal system in lockdown unless you’re up on a social offence… We’re all Mike Ashleys here in AgencyLand now - Have a nice day!”
