Campaign underway against government’s Universal Credit scheme

As criticism mounts over the government’s Universal Credit scheme, the NUS has launched a campaign to protect the rights of disabled students affected.

The scheme is currently being rolled out over the country, changing the way in which welfare benefits are distributed. Under this new scheme the six working-age benefits, now labelled as ‘legacy benefits’, will be replaced by one monthly payment.

Legacy benefits, especially the Housing Benefit and Employment Support Allowance, provide a key source of support for many disabled students to be able study and crucially, manage the extra costs associated with disability. In 2014, a study by Scope UK found that disabled people pay on average £550 per month on such everyday living costs.

Under Universal Credit, these payments would be drastically changed.

For many disabled students in further and higher education, this poses a huge threat. Due to new regulations under this system, Disability Rights UK claims that “most disabled students are now effectively barred from Higher Education due to Universal Credit rules.”

This will only widen the disparity between disabled and non-disabled students with a degree level qualification, which currently stands at around 50 per cent.

The battle is being fought as a damning UN report accuses the UK government of breaching the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People with a “continuing retrogression” of rights. Disabled people are increasingly left open to “serious discrimination” in educational, employment and social opportunities.

The Universal Credit scheme has received much criticism, even from members of the Conservative party itself. Studies show that around 2.5 million low-income working households will be more than £1,000 a year worse off after moving to Universal Credit due to its lower rate of payment. In addition, a six week waiting time has left many claimants without money, fuelling food bank use, personal debt, rent arrears, eviction and mental distress.

On Wednesday, an advisory vote held in parliament to pause universal credit rollout received unanimous support, with 299 MPs voting for the motion. This is a symbolic victory for the disabled students’ campaign, which has been encouraging students and students’ unions to pressure MPs to vote and show their support for a pause in the rollout.

To strengthen support, Rachel O’Brien, Disabled Students’ Officer at the NUS, has called upon students’ unions to be aware of the struggle disabled students face and to campaign alongside their disabled students for their rights.

Riddi Viswanathan, Diversity Officer at the Student’s Union, said she supported  “the NUS stance on Universal credit and support the article by the NUS Disabled Students’ officer Rachel O’Brien. I believe that universal credit will significantly reduce the benefits received by our disabled students, especially as it is replacing the employment support allowance and housing benefit which are essential for disabled students. Also, there are significant concerns associated with Universal Credit like the six-week delay in receiving payments and also lower rate of payment compared to the previous five separate working age benefits it is replacing.

When asked if the Union’s and University’s support of disabled students was good enough, Riddi said “in comparison to other unions and the universities, we are doing a good job with respect to supporting our disabled students. However, I have seen some students with hidden disabilities who have significant concerns over receiving exam support.”

Riddi explained how she could not move forward with support for disabled students alone. However, she looked “forward to actively working with the new elected disabled student officers and the disabled students’ societies on campus to understand their concerns and represent them to the university and union actively.”