Early warning system: top issues update April 2019

CPAG's early warning system takes the temperature of how changes to benefits are affecting families by highlighting the most problematic issues which advisers around the country are seeing. The latest update reveals ongoing problems with people being wrongly directed to universal credit and people moving to universal credit and becoming significantly worse off, as well as a number of problems with specific elements of universal credit: housing costs, real time information, access to appeal rights, and failure to adequately meet support needs.

People with non-typical tenancy agreements, or who have separated from partners whose names remain on the tenancy, are too often facing problems getting their housing costs paid correctly. Some workers have been pushed into extreme hardship by errors in the 'real time information' feed which reports their earnings to DWP, as their own evidence such as payslips is ignored by the department. 

We also continue to see problems with poor administration, difficulties people face in accessing their appeal rights, and people struggling with support needs which are unmet by the digital system.

Read more about the early warning system and submit your cases here.