Money Box Live: Universal Credit
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 14 November 2018
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What’s your experience of the biggest change ever made to the benefits system? Universal Credit - which is being gradually introduced across the UK - is supposed to make things simpler, by merging six benefits into one single payment. But it's been plagued by controversy, especially over delays in paying claimants, causing severe hardship in some cases.
In Budget 2018, the Chancellor introduced new measures designed to improve the system. These include increasing the amount of money people can earn before their benefits are reduced and allowing two weeks extra benefits for those moving from the old system to the new. But will it be enough to solve the problems? How might this extra help benefit you?
If you have been affected by Universal Credit, do share your story by calling 03700 100 444. Lines open from 1pm on Wednesday 14 November. You can email moneybox@bbc.co.uk or tweet @moneybox
Guests: Sarah Hayle, Welfare rights adviser, Community Law Service, Northampton and County Angela Marke, Head of Advice Quality, Advising Communities David Samson, welfare benefits specialist, Turn2Us
Presenter: Paul Lewis Producer: Sally Abrahams
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers. |
| 0:08.0 | But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA |
| 0:12.0 | was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife. |
| 0:18.0 | Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day, |
| 0:24.0 | who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA. |
| 0:28.5 | Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:37.8 | Producer Sally Abrahams has come into the studio to talk to me about how that went. |
| 0:41.4 | So just before you listen to it, Sally, such a busy programme. |
| 0:46.3 | Yes, we had so many calls and loads of emails, and it's just impossible in 28 minutes to get through everything. |
| 0:51.7 | We tried to hit, you know, some of the big topics, you know, sanctions and who loses out, what you can do if you don't have access to the internet, you know, whether you can get home visits or help like that. |
| 1:04.1 | But there's so much to fit in in such a complex subject and short space of time. |
| 1:09.1 | But hopefully this is just a taster of what's involved with Universal Credit. |
| 1:15.1 | There will be links on the website and, well, a taster of a big subject. |
| 1:20.1 | Yes, and thank you for organising it all. |
| 1:22.1 | We have great guests, I have to say, despite the problems of all the callers had. |
| 1:26.8 | And it was the maladministration that surprised me perhaps the most |
| 1:30.0 | because that is the hardest thing to cope with |
| 1:32.4 | is a big government department just getting things wrong. |
| 1:35.5 | Getting things wrong and also requiring you to be in a certain place at a certain time |
| 1:39.2 | with a certain number of documents in the right form, the right file, the right size, |
| 1:43.6 | you know, really quite |
| 1:45.1 | complicated, especially when you're feeling under pressure anyway. And when you've heard the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.