Being part of UC:US

Posted by Maria Thompson, UC:US member, and Ruth Patrick, Lecturer in Social Policy, University of York

Illustration by: www.hatiillustration.com 

In this blog post we hear from Maria, a member of UC:US, a group of people claiming Universal Credit in Belfast working to share experiences of the benefit and to make recommendations for change.

Maria was introduced to Fuse by Ruth Patrick, from the University of York, after an exclusive showing of a new play called 'Credit', described in this accompanying Fuse blog post by Mandy Cheetham.

Maria took part in research with Universal Credit claimants living in Northern Ireland funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)*.

The below is in Maria's own words and has been unedited.


Two years ago, I was made redundant. Due to my postcode I had to claim Universal Credit. This created a massive snowball effect and after two years I am still dealing with the negative consequences. Claiming Universal Credit was the easy bit. I found myself in rent arrears of £1600 and with an old tax credit overpayment of £1400. A week later the eviction letters arrived. Even after explaining my situation, I was faced with third stage eviction letters. I got legal advice from my solicitor as I was already getting divorced and I contacted my MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Ireland Assembly) for more help.

Listen to Maria's experience of Universal Credit

My MLA asked if I’d be interested to get involved in a research project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and working with Mark Simpson (Ulster University) and Ruth Patrick (University of York). Mark met with me first, and we talked about my experiences on Universal Credit. Then, we met up as part of a wider group with about 12 people who are on Universal Credit across Belfast. The group met over the course of a year and we decided to name ourselves UC:US.

The purpose of the project was to gather information from different participants’ experience of Universal Credit. We discussed our stories individually.

From day one, nobody had anything positive to say. We all agreed that Universal Credit needed to be drastically improved or scrapped. We worked with an illustrator to show our journeys on universal credit; talking about how the benefit made us feel. We also heard from other experts about their ideas for change to Universal Credits. We put it all together in a leaflet setting out our recommendations for change.

We found that for Universal Credit to be improved, there is a need to:

• Increase the amount paid to avoid people living in poverty
• End the 5 week wait time for a first payment
• Stop the benefit triggering debt 
• Have experienced and trained staff 
• Make Universal Credit user friendly. 

After we concluded our findings, we were delighted to be invited to speak at the House of Lords. We were all excited about a day trip to London and to the Houses of Parliament. This was cancelled due to Coronavirus. We did eventually though get to participate in a meeting virtually at the House of Lords on Universal Credit via Zoom, hosted by Baroness Ruth Lister, and organised by the Social Policy Association. This for our group was very empowering to hear our voices being spoken, listened to and approved by Members of Parliament and the House of Lords.

UC:US hope the government can learn from past mistakes so that Universal Credit can be improved. We want a future where new claimants are not financially scarred or mentally drained from a never ending battle for pennies only to end up owing thousands.

You can find out more about the work of UC:Us at www.ucus.org.uk

* More about the research

As part of research funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), Universal Credit claimants living in Northern Ireland took part in a series of six participatory workshops in 2019. These workshops - which were conceived as 'experts by experience panels' - were a chance for participants to share their experiences and journeys on Universal Credit, and to work together to develop recommendations for change. Importantly, the project adopted a participatory approach; and participants were involved in all the key decisions; including choosing which arts-based output to develop to share key project findings. Participants decided to develop an illustrated flyer; working in partnership with illustrator Hannah Miller. Participants also had the opportunity to hear from people with other forms of expertise about their views about what changes are needed to Universal Credit, and why, and to use that information to inform key decisions about their final recommendations for change. 

 

The project findings have been published by JRF, and participants have since taken part in policy meetings and discussions with Northern Irish politicians and officials, as well as talking at a number of national parliamentary events. The project is now entering a new phase, with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council enabling collaborative work to continue policy discussions between the participants - who call themselves UC:Us - and policymakers and work to create a guide for new claimants of Universal Credit.