IN OXFORD from Wednesday, October 18 onwards, anyone making a new claim for Job Seeker’s Allowance, working tax credit or other working-age benefit will instead have to apply for Universal Credit.

However, if they apply on Wednesday, they will not receive any money for six weeks – that is the last day of November or beginning of December – even if everything runs smoothly. In many cases it will not.

These claimants, by definition, are not people with lots of savings in the bank. During that six weeks (or more) they will still have to pay the rent, feed the gas meter and buy food for the family. So by the time the Universal Credit does finally arrive, they are likely to be in huge debt. They may be forced to take out loans at high interest rates, storing up even more problems for the future. They will almost certainly have to visit food banks. Some will be evicted because of rent arrears.

MPs from all parties have warned that people who are already poor will be made destitute by this six-week wait but the Government appears not to care. Far from helping people into work, Universal Credit will make Oxford’s poor, whether they are in work or out of work, even poorer. Theresa May should scrap the six-week delay now.

SUE TANNER
Sunningwell Road, Oxford