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Local councils and MPs across East Lancashire are concerned that families on a low income will not have a festive Christmas season. With the Universal Credit going into effect during late October through November, many people who rely on the government payments may struggle in balancing their bills and also providing a Christmas for their families.

While the pilot markets have helped improve the rollouts, there are still often delays in processing the paperwork and enrolling claimants. Since the credit is being rolled out by Department for Work and Pensions so close to Christmas, many families and children may need to go without this year.

While delays in when the local town and borough rollouts have continued to occur and deadlines have been missed, the current schedule calls for the towns of Darwen and Blackburn job centres to be on the Universal Credit in late November, and others in East Lancashire will also be impacted. However that schedule can always change. If the rollout stays on trackand occurs, it will initially be for single people and also couples that do not have a job, with other individuals to be enrolled later.

Concern on the schedule

Since the date is so close to Christmas, if DWP has any delays then payments will not be made in time. In fact, the Darwen council states that applications may take as long as six weeks to process. So this is a major concern of the local authorities.

As part of the programme, the cash from the government will now be transferred into individuals’ bank accounts once per month, and any delays in this process will cause families to struggle during December. Not only do claimants now need to budget their money more effectively as their six benefits will be combined, but since the programme is going into effect in East Lancashire so late in the year any delay will be even extra harmful.

So even if things go as planned, the claimant will be given one payment in December. Then, they will need to pay their rent and other expenses, such as heating bills, that increase during that time of the year. People will then need to budget any other money for food and what is left for Christmas gifts. So with all these changes from the credit occurring, struggles will occur.

The government is stating that do to what was learned in the Universal Credit pilot markets in early 2014, the process in East Lancashire will go smoothly. The Department for Work and Pensions as well as the Welfare Minister fully expect payments to be made in time for the Christmas season, so families should not be impacted. However, with all of the problems that continue to be reported in other districts, we hope this is the case.