Why Universal Credit was always Doomed – John Gelmini

Landlord? (Photo credit: the justified sinner)

I thank Dr Alf for reblogging the Guardian article entitled “Universal credit is doomed – one-size-fits-all suits no one | Penny Anderson | Comment is free “. Personally, I believe that Universal Credit was always doomed. Let me explain.

Universal Credit is doomed because it ignores the mental processes of benefit recipients,their inability to budget on a monthly basis and because in many cases they are better off not working at all.

This given the low pay that they would get in the sorts of jobs many of them would be realistically be able to do.

Given that 1 million people are on zero hours contracts and the numbers are increasing Universal Credit as now constituted has disincentives to work built into it rather than making work pay and is not truly universal in that Housing Benefit does not automatically fit into it and in many cases will still go to Landlords as it does now.
Some landlords with HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation),have already circumvented Universal Credit by insisting that tenants who are benefit recipients have their rent paid by local authorities paid to a management services company owned and controlled by the landlord.

Where local authorities disagree with this then tenants are subjected to eviction.

Giving local authorities control over landlords and rents as Ed Miliband and the Guardian would like to do is going to discourage landlords, cause evictions and disrupt the flow of Universal Credit which is contingent upon the benefit recipient having an address.

Work can only pay if there is enough of it and the reality is that for every 47 benefit recipients there is just 1 job.
Factoring in the 4.5 million illegal immigrants and the fact that 85% of jobs go to people who are immigrants rather than the indigenous population,most benefit recipients barring a lottery win, starting a business or consistent 3% plus economic growth ,are going to be with us until the day they die.

A more proactive approach to rebuilding our infrastructure, exporting and inward investment would create the money needed to drag UK PLC out of this situation and gradually render Universal Credit unnecessary.
Of that, we hear little from the Government, little from Ed Miliband and nothing from the Guardian whose reporters and writers seem to think that redistribution of wealth via high taxes rather than creating a bigger cake is the answer to everything.

John Gelmini