by Gareth Morgan on January 11, 2019
My initial thoughts, on this decision, are that this is a very substantial threat to the entire Universal Credit system. If the decision stands, because the DWP don’t appeal, appeal and lose or accept the decision and don’t table amendments to reintroduce the current way of applying earnings, then the consequences are huge. Logically, it […]
by Gareth Morgan on January 11, 2019
While we don’t know what the government’s response will be, The High Court has dealt a major blow to the Universal Credit system today (11th January 2019) in a Judicial Review case brought by CPAG. They’ve decided UC is wrong in taking all pay received in an assessment period into account as income for that […]
by Gareth Morgan on January 2, 2019
Coming up to the New Year, there have been a flurry of comments about how Universal Credit works for people who pay their rent weekly. Most of this concern has come from social landlords who will have 53 rent days in their next rent year. The National Housing Federation [NHF], in a technical note (53-week […]
by Gareth Morgan on November 18, 2018
What have Debt Counsellors, Building Societies, Landlords and Energy Suppliers got in common with Payday Lenders and Catalogue Shopping? Answer? They’re all keen on regular payments by their clients and customers and that, in turn, means that they like people who budget. They’re also all likely to suffer because of a Universal Credit design decision. […]
by Gareth Morgan on October 12, 2018
Universal Credit is a simpler benefit than the complicated six benefits that it replaces; says the government. It is understood more easily because it matches the way in which most people in work get paid – monthly. Of course not everyone who is actually in work does get paid monthly, so those people who are […]
by Gareth Morgan on January 12, 2018
There is concern, increasingly voiced, by a number of well-informed commentators, about some of the consequences of the pension freedoms. The complexity of choices, the lack of knowledge of most pension savers and the actions of some advisers, particularly around pension transfers, have led to calls for changes that would lead to safer and more […]
by Gareth Morgan on December 22, 2015
Before the pension freedoms of April 2015, the practical reality, for most people with pension savings, was that they had to take an annuity. For those with benefits entitlements that was often a pretty poor bargain. The annuity was taken penny for penny from any means tested benefit entitlement that they had, whether Pension Credit […]
by Gareth Morgan on October 20, 2015
Tax credits are very much in the news at the moment, not least because of the powerful appearance on BBC Question Time of Michelle Dorrell with her concern about the personal impact of these cuts. I have recently completed a big exercise, using our Future Benefits Model, looking at the effect of all the announced […]
by Gareth Morgan on August 20, 2015
I wrote some time ago, over 3 ½ years in fact, about the consultation and call for evidence that had been published by the government announcing their policy intentions for support for mortgage interest in means tested benefits – http://blog.cix.co.uk/gmorgan/2012/01/06/mortgage-interest-support-consultation/. The Summer Budget 2015 has now produced the date of introduction of the proposal – […]
by Gareth Morgan on February 15, 2015
There are big changes coming in April to the way in which people, from age 55, can access their ‘money purchase’, or ‘defined contribution’ pension savings. These are pensions where the amount you get is decided by the amount that you’ve paid in to your ‘pot’ – the total value of your pension savings. The […]