New research commissioned by the think-tank Money & Mental Health indicates that people experiencing mental health problems are facing a barrier to applying for benefits. People experiencing mental distress often rely on support from friends and family to apply for the Universal Credit that they’re entitled to. But there’s a flaw in the system – in order to nominate someone to help them, people in this situation have to make a separate application, which is also confusing and difficult to navigate.
People are being set up to fail: to get help with an inaccessible application process, you first have to go through another inaccessible application process.
Money & Mental Health (MMH) explain further in this video:
MMH have made three recommendations for the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) to help solve the problem:
- Provide people with clearer advice on what information they need to share with the DWP to get support from a loved one, and the correct process for doing so through the Universal Credit website.
- Make this online process much more accessible and user-friendly, by adding prompts and drop down menus to guide people
- Give people more flexible options to share information about their Universal Credit account with loved ones – for example, the option to give a friend or relative view-only access to your Universal Credit account, or to allow loved ones to get notifications about your account.
You can support these measures by signing MMH’s petition.
This action is being organised and led by the think-tank Money & Mental Health. Peace Hub is sharing it as we feel it is a positive action that fits our current theme. It should not be inferred that MMH or any of their partner organisations has endorsed Peace Hub in any way.