Who in the Future will be Affected by Universal Credit (UC)?
1. To date, of the 1 million households now on UC, the vast majority (except in local pilot areas), have been the unemployed. However that is about to change. From now on across the country all new or updated benefit claims (with a few exceptions) including those in work who receive Tax Credits have to be made through UC.

2. DWP also plans to force everyone on benefits (including those on Working and Child Tax Credits) to claim UC even if there has been no change in their circumstances. DWP has refused to initiate transfers of Tax Credit claims on to a UC regime. Instead people have to initiate UC applications, a fraught and costly process. Testing forced transfers, called ‘managed migration’ by DWP, is due to start for some Tax Credit recipients in July 2019.

3. Nationally, DWP’s plans mean 3 in 4 of the planned total of 7 million families on UC, would be in work.… Read on ...

SATURDAY 17TH NOVEMBER 2018
12 noon BBC, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA

Anti-Racism and the Trade Unions
WFTC notes that a high proportion of the British working class is composed of immigrants and their descendants and that these workers have historically played an important role in advancing the interests of all workers. We restate our commitment to equal rights for all workers irrespective of ethnicity or citizenship. In practical terms this means defending the right to stay of EU nationals working and living in the UK and maintaining free movement of labour within the EU

WFTC also notes that Waltham Forest has an ethnically diverse population with huge numbers of low-paid workers; increasing numbers of families struggling on and around the poverty line; a growth in rough sleeping and use of foodbanks; with many support services massively cut due to successive government policies. This is leading to some mistaken opinions regarding the true cause of these problems.… Read on ...