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A Day in the Journal: April 5th - The Broken System at Day One

A Day in the Journal: April 5th - The Broken System at Day One

My Universal Credit claim began on April 5th, 2025. It began with a broken door. The very first, and most critical, step—verifying my identity—was an impossible task designed by a system that doesn't talk to itself.

For nearly two hours, I was stuck in a loop, trying to use the GOV.UK Verify system as instructed by the Universal Credit portal. The system repeatedly failed, but I kept trying because the alternative it offered was a telephone call—a method of communication that is extremely difficult for me due to my disabilities.

After completing every other section of the application, from housing to health, the system finally logged a crucial, but false, confirmation.

The Ghost in the Machine

At 11:16 PM on the night my claim was submitted, my Universal Credit journal was updated with a single, misleading line:

Journal Entry: 5 Apr 2025 at 11:16pm

"Confirm your identity completed"

I felt a moment of relief, believing the struggle was over. But this verification was an error, a ghost in the machine. The system had recorded a task as "...completed" which was technically impossible to perform.

The System's Known Failure

The reason I couldn't verify my identity online wasn't my fault. It was because the DWP was instructing me to use a service that they had officially stopped using over a year earlier.

The government's own guidance page on verifying identity for Universal Credit is clear. While it still confusingly talks about online verification, it contains a crucial update at the bottom.

Official DWP Guidance: How to verify your identity for Universal Credit

"Online identity verification... Universal Credit no longer uses Government Gateway or GOV.UK Verify for online verification."

This change was implemented in early 2024.

Why This Day Matters

This wasn't just a technical glitch. This was the system setting me up to fail from the very first interaction. By keeping a defunct verification method as the point of entry and then falsely recording it as complete, the DWP created a situation that was guaranteed to cause problems.

This single, erroneous journal entry on day one became the foundation for the entire battle to come. It was later used as the justification to push me towards telephone calls and in-person appointments, forcing me to fight for a reasonable adjustment that should have been anticipated from the start.

After the being ignored by Cambridge Jobcentre Plus staff, and then ignored by the DWP Legal department - letter before claim PAP - and the draft submission for an injunction, the DWP then ignore any law, or evidence and continued lying.  

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