Universal Credit National Day of Action

This Christmas will be cancelled for thousands of families claiming the new benefit Universal Credit. Despite knowing Universal Credit causes serious problems for claimants, the government is pressing ahead and rolling it out to thousands of people who will have to wait weeks to receive any money. Claimants are descending into debt, relying on food banks, getting into rent arrears and in many cases getting evicted from their homes because of in-built problems with Universal Credit.

Unite Community along with other anti-austerity groups has called a National Day of Action for Saturday 2nd December. As part of this, Unite Community Leeds and Wakefield will be holding stalls in the shopping centre, and we are calling on people to join us to leaflet, petition, raise awareness and show solidarity with claimants.

Alternatively, we also encourage all groups and individuals to create their own events and activities whether in town or in their own neighbourhoods. We’ll be posting more links with useful facts and figures for campaigning, so everyone can get on board in any way they can.

UNITE is calling on the government to:
Abandon the long waits for claimants to receive money
Allow people to apply for Universal Credit in a jobcentre, not just online
Provide people with better help when the system fails them
Pay landlords directly to stop people getting into rent arrears and losing their homes
End benefit sanctions for in-work and out-of-work claimants
Stop payments going to one named member of a household
Make work pay – Universal Credit takes 63p in every £1 people earn

The roll-out of UC is without doubt a humanitarian emergency and we need to create a mass consensus to get it put on hold RIGHT NOW. In the longer term, we need to get out the arguments for reversing all the benefit cuts (some implemented for the first time under UC) and a guarantee of adequate support for everyone, including those whose work is in the home (eg parents and carers) and those managing physical or mental health disabilities. Ultimately, the harshness and built-in conditionality of the benefits system benefits no-one but the employers, forcing more and more people to compete for low-paid and insecure work and causing untold hardship and stress for claimants.