Universal Credit predicament

[daydreamsaplenty]

I’m reaching out to the wise MN’ers for help. This will be long and I’m going to give as much information as I can, I don’t care about being identified. Brace yourself!

Myself and my DH (both 23) have 2 DC. DS1 (4) and DS2 (3). We have been receiving Universal Credit since the Oct ‘18. I’m currently studying full time to become a midwife at a London University and NHS trust and my husband is a House husband caring for the children who both have SEN. On top of my studies, I have a zero-hour job where I average 16 hours per week. Previously my Husband went to Uni starting at 18, got his degree whilst I was the stay-at-home parent with our first child and pregnant with our second. We then switched places so I could go to Uni.

I will firstly say our aim in both going to Uni is to both gain well paid employment and off Universal Credit. We do not want to be receiving UC but currently we are. Up until this point my husband has taken the paternity leave given by UC to provide childcare as my schedule at Uni is very demanding between lectures and clinical placement, I average 60 h/pw working either in placement or my zero hours job. Now that our youngest is 3, paternity has come to an end and UC and hounding my husband to look for a minimum of 14 hours work.

Whilst neither of us disagree that he needs to find work eventually, we are struggling to make it work around childcare. DC both get 15 hours free childcare which is used at a school attached nursery 3 hours per day, 5 days per week (eldest DC has been kept behind a year but is due to start in their Reception class this September). UC want us to take them out of this nursery and put them in a normal 9-5 nursery, we do not qualify for 30 free hours childcare. My concern is that in a normal nursery they will not receive the in-house physiotherapy and the Speech and language therapy support that both require and this lack of one to one therapy would be detrimental to their abilities going forwards.

As the childcare is currently only 3 hours per day, we can’t get UC to understand that we can’t move the children due to the specialist support they need, no-one will employ DH for less than 3 hours per day and that my schedule is very unpredictable due to shifts that change at short notice. DH does not drive so once he drops kids off at nursery and makes it back for pick up, he’d probably at best have 2.5 hours to work. Not to mention that a minimum wage job right now (as part time mostly are) wouldn’t fund the cost of 2 childcare places.

We are in the process of applying for Disability Living Allowance for DC1 and in time DH will go down as a carer for DC1 and won’t be required to work and continue to cover the childcare but there is a 6-9 month wait for DLA to be processed.

DH has an SEN (that needs to be officially diagnosed but currently does not have the time to do so) & health needs of his own so any job would need to work around that. UC is claimed as a family unit and one of us is already working 16 hours a week roughly (me, as stated above) but they won’t include me in this and expect DH to work which is nigh on impossible because of the childcare. We seem to have a set of unique circumstances and are falling through the cracks of the normal guidelines that exist. We are being threatened with financial sanctions and are barely keeping our heads above water at present as it is. We do not want to be on UC and our goal is to be off as already said and once I graduate next year, I will be earning the bulk of our income releasing us from need government financial assistance. In September both kids will be in full time school, so with breakfast & after school clubs DH will be able to work a 9-5 job at last whilst still being the primary care giver for the DC1 & 2.

Any advice on what we can do to get UC to realise the predicament we are in and to give us some breathing room until I graduate and will be self-sufficient and off UC, surely this must have happened before? Again, I want to stress that this is a short-term unique issue and one that will resolve itself in 18 months. We are 5 years into both our university courses and so far, the only real answer is to have another child to kick the 3 years parental leave again, but we do not wish to have another child, that is not the answer! We had our kids early on purpose so that once we both started employment there would be no breaks for maternity/paternity leave and just because we had our kids at a planned younger age, we seem to be falling though the cracks and threatened with sanctions.

There is nothing you can do until DLA is awarded and your husband can be put down as a carer giving him zero work commitments. I very much doubt it will take as long as you anticipate to get the DLA awarded- more like four months? The Uc rules are changing and once youngest turns 3, both parents now need to be looking for some work although as a full time student you should have no work commitments so maybe could you give up your part time work enabling dh to look for some kind of evening or weekend work to make up the same money? This is what I would do in your situation.

And for goodness sake don't have another child just for him to be able to stay on UC- not sure if this is a serious comment or not. You would not get child element even for a third child.

You would get 85% of childcare costs paid for by UC.

They won't care about your situation. They just follow the rules.

And you've not fallen through cracks. you chose to have your kids young with no established career and now you are complaining because they are expecting you r dh to work a few hours a week. Most people have careers established before having kids and go back to work when they are a year old ? They don't have the luxury of 3 years paternity leave as you call it. I appreciate your kids have additional needs but if they didn't would you still have expected him to be off work indefinitely. Actually the more I re-read this I wonder if it is for real.

You are definitely falling between the cracks. Once DLA is in place, that will change, but obviously it takes time. It shouldn't take 6-9 months though, unless you have to go to Tribunal. I think wait times are currently around 14 weeks. My sons first claim I had to do mandatory reconsideration, so it took an extra month after applying, but he was given HRC. Have you sent the application off? When did you send it?
What about a fit note from the GP as your husband isn't able to work currently due to his own health needs. I have previously been signed off sick with stress due to the childrens SEN needs, so that can be able option too. My GP was very sympathetic to my situation.
Or reverse your working role. You will have no work commitments due to receiving student finance. But your husband could do the 16 hours in a zero hours type contract perhaps to fit around your shifts?
I do think UC is awful for students. They shouldn't be expecting your husband to search for work for 14 hours when it is clear you will only ever be entitled to 15 hours childcare, term time.
There is a FB page which should be able to give accurate advice https://www.facebook.com/groups/1824855797785386/?ref=share

Not as a student she wouldn't.

They could possibly claim student childcare grant if both working.

That is just rude. She made it clear that her children can't attend a different nursery due to their care needs and the treatments they are having at the school nursery.
I'm sure she would rather her husband could meet the requirements and the children attend childcare like other children can.
OP I'm a midwife who had my first child age 17, and was a student midwife by age 19. I totally understand your predicament.

Yes apologies was probably a bit rude but as explained, she has no work commitments so could give up her 16 hours and he could work evenings or weekends around her study which would completely alleviate the problem until the DLA is awarded. I do apologise, think it was just the comment about a third child that niggled.

Or they could just not find a job and put up with the hassling for a few more months until the DLA is awarded. Realistically I don't think they would sanction. Op's dh could just show he is applying for jobs but string it out a bit.

@Babyroobs. I read the comment of third child as that would be the easy way to solve this but not the one she would do.

She clearly put they don't want a third child.

Not an easy solution at all.

Is there a charity or support organisation for your dc special needs? Along the lines of National Autistic Society, Down Syndrome Association et al. If there is they must have come across your situation before and could offer advice?
I hope you can get something sorted , the govt will get any money back from you both in taxes over the next 40+ years you work. Good luck with your studies.

Thank you @ThisMustBeMyDream.
I just want to stress that this is not a case of neither of us wanting to work. If we could have made it work, we would have done so a long time ago. It has just gotten harder recently as both DC needs have become more apparent.
I'm reluctant to quit my job of 7 years on the hope that DH will find something similar with the same level of flexibility as the money I earn really makes the difference between making our bills or not.
There is limited support for students in our situation, and we have come up against several challenges.
I'm frequently out of the house for 16 hours per day (12.5 hour shift and a 2 hour commute each way) and there are periods where I will work up to 14 days straight either in clinical placement or my paid job.
I just feel like someone needs to cut us some slack as by the time I graduate in sept '24, both children will be in full time education and we will be able to utilise wrap around childcare within the school. I appreciate its not really how it work and they can't pick and choose who they give allowance to or not but I just feel like I'm trying to do what's best by getting a good education to lead me into a job that has good job security and we're being beaten down at every opportunity. All I want is security for my family.

Could he start some kind of self employment, run from home business? Maybe related to his degree? Tutoring?
UC will support with this- minimum income floor doesn’t apply for 12mths (do your research on this). As long as he spends the required hrs setting up his business, looking for business etc then they will accept this. The 2nd year is different- if he isn’t earning National min wage x expected work hrs then they will treat the claim as if he is. Like I said, look into it properly, could be a good option.

You are not unique in your situation. You chose to have your children before you had both finished uni and were earning enough to support your children, so that is no one else’s fault. UC works to get you and your partner into work, so that’s what he has to do. You will get sanctioned like any one else in the same situation. Your partner does not get the priviledge to sit at home and collect benefits in this day and age, he needs to support his family!

DLA is more like 9 weeks not months to be turned around

Is there a local childminder who would do pick ups from the nursery op? So they go to the nursery for the 3 hours and then get picked up and stay with childminder for the rest of the day. If your dh hasn't worked since graduating then he really needs to get into some kind of work if he has no work experience, the longer he leaves it the harder it will be and degrees I think are only considered relevant for a certain number of years I think ( happy to be corrected on this ). It must also be hard for you not seeing much of the children when they are so young, so would benefit you to cut your working hours down a bit.

2 of my children get dla.
Dd's claim was sorted within 4 weeks but that was a while ago now.
DS's was sorted within 6 weeks last year.

I think the issue might be that she chops and changes her zero hours work around her “shifts” on placement which I’m guessing involve a lot of unsociable hours and he might struggle to get the same flexibility but yes worth a try. However the nursery situation is a concern and definitely isn’t in the children’s best interests to move by all accounts. They see being penalised more in my view for having children with additional needs.

Can your dh not get a job working 16 hours per week then you can stop doing your part time job and concentrate on your final year of university? Doing a midwifery degree, placements and working 16 hours per week on top, you must feel like you never see your children. Your dh working the 16 hours per week instead will improve your work- home life balance and solve the uc issue.

I run a very modest business alongside caring for my adult son. He has ASD, ADHD, OCD and Dyspraxia. Every time he has a review he is stripped of his PIP, I lose my carers allowance and we have to go through the circus of Mandatory Reconsideration, which sometimes works. Last time I thought we would have to go to appeal, as the MR was turned down. But when I sent in the appeal papers they decided to reinstate it. In the meantime I was going to the jobcentre every week, it is just a box ticking exercise. I also had to reapply for carers allowance which made me feel really frustrated. All of this happens because the assessor doesn’t write down what we actually say. I have decided to request a recording of the next one. Anyway the point is that the jobcentre have to apply basic rules for everyone even if they understand the situation (which they actually did for the most part, they were lovely). I applied for work from home jobs, I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere because I was 59 and hadn’t been employed by someone else for over ten years. I just went through the motions. So your husband needs to insist that he can only work from home, and be honest about his circumstances in his CV. Chances are he won’t find a job or worst case scenario gets a job where he can work from home and you can give up your job.

Go through the motions. Have DP apply to a job every morning and carry on as you are.

No job offers come. Or a job offer comes and the process is slow that you get your benefits in time. Or a great job offer comes and you think, bloody hell, take it and hand in your notice.

Either way, you’ll be okay.

Your kids will have a great start once you get through this super-hard period. Keep going, tick the boxes and be proud of yourselves.

He could go self-employed. Look for small handyman / gardening jobs for example, or on-line tutoring. He will have a year to give this a go. https://www.gov.uk/self-employment-and-universal-credit