Heat or eat: harsh choice for hard-up families

Cath Green: choice for some is heat or eat

FIRST Choice Homes Oldham chief executive Cath Green is worried the new Universal Credit system is forcing tough choices between paying for food, heating or rent.

An FCHO survey polled tenants who have converted to the Universal Credit system of benefit payment as part of an Oldham pilot scheme.

Ms Green says there are stark contrasts between the aims of UC and what is happening in practice.

“We knew UC was going to hit customers hard, which is why we have had initiatives and customer support in place since well before the pilot started, she said.

“This survey shows the harsh realities of the new system and the stark choices our customers have to make between heating, eating and paying their rent.

“Supporting our customers and ensuring they have a roof over their heads remains our priority.”

Oldham was one of four pilot areas selected to trial the new way of handing out benefits last year.

UC merges the six main existing means-tested benefits — Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Housing Benefit — into a single monthly payment.

Among the survey’s findings (27 responses represented 40 per cent of those FCO clients now on the UC system) were:


Three-quarters said they had not been offered personal budgeting support by the Department for Work and Pensions.

More than half said they found the period between making their UC claim and receiving their first payment “very difficult”. Almost a fifth had been forced to take out a controversial pay-day loan to make ends meet Over 40 per cent said they had borrowed money to balance the books.

Just under half of the tenants surveyed said they didn’t know they could apply for an advance payment.

Over a third of tenants said they didn’t receive their UC payment on the same day each month, making budgeting extremely difficult.

But a spokesman for the DWP said: “This is a misleading survey of only 27 people and doesn;t reflect what we are seeing on the ground.

“Paying Housing Benefit directly to claimants is a major culture change designed to move people into the world of work. We know people are adjusting to this over time. The vast majority say they are coping well with direct payments.”