“The early introduction of Universal Credit demonstrates our ongoing commitment to transforming the welfare system and will improve the lives of millions of claimants by incentivising work and making work pay.” Work will continue over the coming months to ensure that jobcentres, local authorities and employers in the Greater Manchester and Cheshire region are geared up to support the new service ahead of the early roll out in April. Lord Freud the Minister for Welfare Reform said: “The development of Universal Credit is progressing extremely well. By next April we will be ready to test the end to end service and use the feedback we get from claimants to make final improvements before the national launch. This will ensure that we have a robust and reliable new service for people to make a claim when Universal Credit goes live nationally in October 2013.” Today Ministers have also confirmed that Universal Credit will be introduced across Britain, starting on a small scale in every region from October 2013 and building up capacity to April 2014, when all new claims to the current benefits and credits will be entirely phased out. People who have recently lost their jobs and are closest to the labour market will be the first to make a claim for Universal Credit, with the majority making claims online rather than by telephone or face to face. The CIPP has read with interest this latest announcement from the DWP. They have confirmed that they will be rolling out Universal Credits in the Greater Manchester and the Cheshire region in April 2013, 6 months earlier than planned. Why this is of interest is that as we know “most” employers will be processing RTI from April 2013, but we also know that HMRC will afford some flexibility for the largest of employers and possibly some payroll bureaus before they enter the RTI world, although all will still be required to be on board by October 2013. Assuming this to still be the case, and assuming that the DWP still intend to utilise information submitted by employers in real time, what will they do if one of their claimants in these areas happens to work for a large employer that has agreed a later RTI entry date? Read the full DWP press release
DWP MONTHLY NEWSLETTER – MARCH 2013
25 March 2013
The DWP have circulated their latest monthly stakeholder newsletter.
Topics included within the March stakeholder newsletter include:
DWP reform communications toolkit launched
Benefit cap - National rollout
Appeals process changes for Personal Independence Payment and Universal Credit
Employing Older Workers - Answering Employer Questions
Universal Credit Partner toolkit
HSSF Telephony Network Grant Programme
Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy for Social Sector Tenants
CIPP Policy News Journal
16/04/2014, Page 514 of 519
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker