Overview

Universal Credit is the flagship of the Government’s welfare reform proposals and the transition from old-style benefits is well under way.

There are now over 6 million people on Universal Credit, and around 2.5 million on ‘old-style’ legacy benefits, such as tax credits and housing benefit. UC is completely changing the way that working age benefits are claimed and paid:  we are seeing a whole host of new rules and conditions as more legacy benefit claimants are ‘migrated’ to UC.

This course covers all aspects of Universal Credit and is an essential and up to date guide for everyone working with people on benefits.

Key learning objectives

This course ensures participants are able to:

• Understand the basic rules and conditions of Universal Credit, including the claiming process and all the vital UC terminology.
• Explain to clients how the different ‘migration’ processes work – who does and doesn’t have to claim?
• Understand what action to take when claimants have a change of circumstances, and how to prepare for ‘Managed Migration’.
• Understand how the calculations will work, including the different elements, the treatment of income and capital and the effect of work
• Explain to all clients how to cope with the increased pressure of conditionality and avoid the risk of sanctions.
• Show awareness of how to protect vulnerable and disabled claimants using safeguarding tools and knowledge of the law.
• Be able to give clear information to clients about what will be required of claimants to manage and maintain their claims digitally.
• Appreciate the nature of transitional protection and how changing circumstances will affect claims.

Course content

We will cover all the relevant areas of Universal Credit, including basic eligibility criteria, elements, treatment of income and capital, housing costs, childcare costs, disability issues, making and maintaining claims, the nature of the claimant commitment and transitional protection, and the likely timetable for implementation, along with all the latest news and rumours!

Who should attend

This course is vital information for all staff working with people affected by Universal Credit, but it is not aimed at specialist benefits advisers.

Email: jayne.knights@btopenworld.com

For further details see: www.universalcredittraining.co.uk