Alliance MLA Sian Mulholland has said a five-week wait for a first Universal Credit payment is forcing people to turn to illegal money lenders.
The party is launching a document named ‘No More Time to Wait’, which sets out proposals to address the long waiting time.
In a statement, they said the proposals include “widening access to crisis grants, making UC advance repayments more affordable, introducing a two-week run-on of child tax credit for those eligible and backdating eligible claims to provide a quicker first payment.”
Sian Mulholland MLA, North Antrim, said:
The UC five-week wait is driving poverty and misery in every corner of Northern Ireland today.
Despite repeated calls for help, successive Communities Ministers have made little progress on fixing the issues. UC claimants have no more time to wait. The five-week wait is forcing some people to turn to go hungry, turn to food banks and live in cold homes. That is not good enough.
Claimants have also reported running up various forms of debt, borrowing from friends, high-interest payday lenders, and in the worst cases, turning to illegal money lenders. That and other factors relating to the wait results in mental ill health in many cases, including anxiety, panic attacks, stress and shame.
This cruel system is wrecking lives and urgent action is needed to fix it. Alliance has consistently called for the callous approach of UC to be ended and this party document is the latest piece of that work, addressing the issues so people within the UC system here are no longer plunged into poverty and hardship by a five-week delay to their first payment.
Alliance has called on the Minister for Communities, Gordon Lyons MLA, to implement several measures to mitigate the worst impacts of the waiting time.
Some of these measures include:
- Make the Universal Credit Contingency Fund (UCCF) the first source of support offered to new claimants who are struggling financially and refer all claimants for independent advice before they take on an advance payment.
- Introduce a two-week run-on of Child Tax Credit for those moving onto Universal Credit.
- Use the month before a person’s claim for Universal Credit for their initial assessment period in order to provide a much quicker first payment for some eligible claimants.
You can read their policy document below, or by clicking here.
