MHAIRI Black states that “it makes sense to roll together the different benefits people receive into one” (There’s still a long way to go to fix Universal Credit, The National, October 21). As someone with both professional and personal experience of the benefits system, I’m not convinced. I have doubted from the start that the system could be “simplified” in this way. It might be a good idea in theory, but people’s individual and changing circumstances are necessarily complex.

One of the main problems in combining different benefits under Universal Credit (UC) is that if one element of a claim is messed up it affects the whole claim, causing errors and delays etc. It’s also worth bearing in mind that anyone sanctioned under UC will lose their entire UC entitlement, including the housing costs element, ie the money to pay their rent. It’s been said that you are three times more likely to be sanctioned under UC than if claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance. So the mere fact of benefits being combined into one means you are more likely to lose the roof over your head than under the old system.

In addition, the “digital by default” process for claiming and managing your “live” claim makes it easier to fall foul of the system and find your benefit delayed or sanctioned. Mhairi alludes to the in-built six-week delay to the first payment of UC and how it “leaves people short for some bills and at worst leaves people without food, trapped in a cycle of rent arrears, forcing people into a cycle of debt”. Other aspects of UC do this as a matter of course.

The government’s removal of the high-cost UC helpline, while important, is but a minor concession in the horrendous scheme of things. In addition to the aforementioned problems, UC also incorporates the removal of certain disability premiums, meaning some severely disabled people will lose up to £70 per week. Any self-employed people trying to claim UC are assumed to be working 35 hours per week and earning at least the minimum wage, whether this is the case or not, causing further impoverishment. People claiming in-work benefits under UC are subject to conditionality and sanctions. However “well-meaning” the original intentions behind UC — the brainchild of IDS, let’s not forget — like all “welfare reforms”, it has been deliberately designed to be precarious and punitive, a further step in the dismantling of the social security safety net.

The projected cost of the UC roll-out was £2.5 billion, but it’s now said to have cost in excess of £15bn so far. In my view, focusing on opposing the six-week delay and arguing for a pause in the roll-out, while entirely laudable, will not make Universal Credit fixable. Perhaps the SNP, Labour et al should be exposing all of UC’s deliberate “flaws” and “failings” and calling for the whole thing to be scrapped.
Mo Maclean
Glasgow

YOUR news in brief article stated that an electric train successfully travelled between Edinburgh and Linlithgow early on Wednesday morning and that this was the first time that an electric train has travelled on any section of the route (Rail electrification, The National, October 20). Unfortunately this is not true.

Scottish inventor Robert Davidson (1804-1894) built the world’s first electric locomotive and his locomotive called the GALVANI was tested on the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway in 1842. The battery electric locomotive ran at 4mph. It was unsuccessful as it was 40 times more expensive to run a battery electric locomotive than to burn coal in a steam locomotive.
Derek Ferguson
Cumbernauld

NO smacking and no fracking. No diesel or petrol cars. No nuclear. No plastic bags. No smoking at home. Smart Meters to spy on us. Windmills for the new industry of subsidy farming. And so we move into the 21st century. The age of ignorance, interference, and inconvenience.
Malcolm Parkin
Kinross

IN relation to the article by Andrew Learmonth regarding the Scottish National Investment Bank (Investment bank consultation opens, The National, October 21).

I wish to point out to Jackie Baillie that she and her party should not feel flattered because, months before Labour had even mentioned national investment bank, the SNP conference passed a resolution by acclaim to introduce and develop one.

The First Minister in her Programme for Scotland made it a key objective and convened an advisory group to take it forward.

I should know, because I proposed this as Resolution 8 on March 18 2017. I did not “sketch it on the back of a fag packet”. In fact I spent considerable time and research prior to my presentation.

A copy of my presentation can be made available if required. The investment bank is a classic example of how the SNP it takes a grassroots proposal and turns it into government policy.

Such an investment bank is not a new concept. A number of European countries have been operating these for some time.
Daniel A Wood
Kirriemuir

CURIOUSLY, the Bible omits to mention that when God created the world, He was only implementing a policy previously announced in an earlier Scottish Labour election manifesto. Jackie Baillie must have been too busy to tell you.
Stuart Porter
Montrose