Ministers have agreed to scrap controversial new rules restricting MPs from intervening on behalf of individual constituents to resolve problems with benefit payments. Officials had refused to discuss specific cases with MPs unless the claimant concerned had given “explicit consent” for them to do so by issuing detailed instructions via their online universal credit account. “The overriding issue is that claimants are being left with universal credit problems unresolved for longer, causing distress and exacerbating health problems,” said Daphne Hall of Lasa, a social welfare law charity. Landlords – both private and social – say it is already difficult and time-consuming to resolve universal credit problems such as non-payment of housing support that can lead to eviction. The explicit consent rule applies to claimants on the full service universal credit, of which there are about 450,000 in the UK.

Source: The Guardian March 09, 2017 14:26 UTC