Universal Credit and Mental Health: Recommendations for Change

That the Parliament accepts SAMH’s recent report, "It Was A Confusion" Universal Credit and Mental Health: Recommendations for Change; notes that it lists 17 recommendations to improve universal credit for the benefit of claimants living with mental health issues, including that implicit consent to welfare advisors and other relevant representatives be reinstated for universal credit; understands that, for legacy benefits, welfare advisors can contact the DWP using “implicit consent”, which is where the client has given prior consent to the welfare advisor so they do not have to contact the DWP themselves and do not need to be present when the welfare advisor contacts the DWP; regrets that this is not the case for universal credit, where welfare advisors require “explicit consent”, which in practice means that the client must give permission in writing, over the telephone or in person to the DWP in order for a representative, besides their MSP, to speak about their claim; considers that this shift from implicit to explicit consent is preventing MSPs from representing their constituents if they have an issue with their claim; believes that this is just one of the many ways that the current universal credit system is failing claimants, who are often the most vulnerable people in society, and calls on the UK Government to reinstate implicit consent for universal credit and to abolish what it considers the unjustified five-week waiting period for the first payment.