Moving over to UC from tax credits?

[Usernumber3736372836373]

Any advice. Had a letter to apply for UC by end of March. When would be the best time to apply be? Now or sooner to the date?

our background is - dh works full time and earns 30 grand a year before tax, around £2000 per month take home. He sometimes does overtime though but not enough that it makes a huge difference to our tax credits. We currently get £150 a week child tax credits! What happens with Overtime on UC?

I am currently out of work. We have two children with additional needs both get DLA - middle rate care and low rate mobility. I also get carers allowance. What is carers element on UC?! It confuses me.

I also get maintenance off my sons bio father but I assume doesn’t impact a UC claim?

we have a mortgage if that makes any difference.

also, is it easy to apply? Can you get an advance so you haven’t got a massive gap between TC and UC?

Entitled to website will tell you how much your entitled to including the carers element of uc.

if your renting it will include the housing element in your claim and you should get more than £150 a week in what your getting in tax credits now.

I would apply as soon as you can really, go on the website I just suggested so you get a fair idea of what you’ll get in your claim.

@NiftyBiiknhui thank you, we have a mortgage so no housing element 😊

I found it really easy applying. I would do it sooner rather than later though.

I left the UC application as late as I could, after getting an extension to the deadline (I told them I hadn't been able to get an appointment with CAB to get help with my application). I knew I'd get less money on UC than TCs, and I have savings over the threshold, so my entitlement would only last for a year. So getting a few more months of TCs stretched out my entitlement.

What I'd recommend is getting a calculation from a welfare charity to work out if you'll get more or less on UC. If you get less, then push it back as late as you can to keep getting TCs at the higher level.

They'll claw back any TC overpayment. Just bite the bullet and do it. Maybe wait for a 'normal ' January pay day first?

I found it easy and also have child with DLA. They end your TC claim (so you will have pay back any overpayment then). I think there was 4 week gap between TC ending and UC starting as I got 4 weeks back paid so allow for a gap. It’s paid monthly not weekly and they calculate it every month so would use the figure from your DH employers PAYE at the end of the previous month. So you would get different payments each month depending on OT. This meant I got no UC in the month after I got a public sector pay rise with back pay. So you don’t build up overpayments in same way. They also deduct some UC if you have over £6k savings and I think you are not eligible for UC at all if have over £16k savings. So that was new as I don’t think that mattered for TC (I was only really getting the disabled child TC element anyway). If your income is over what TC estimated for this year there is a £2500 disregard before it affects your TC so it’s worth using all of that before transferring. I can’t claim carers allowance but do get a carers credit with UC so get slightly more under UC than TC. The online calculators are fairly accurate.

@gethere WTF?!

Entitled to calculations do not work with UC post everything here. You need to time the date you claim a week either side of wages. Carers element is paid to all carers on UC no earning requirements like carers allowance. Carers allowance is deducted £ for £.

Thank you everyone. Dh gets paid lady working day of the month so I can’t figure out when is best to apply! I’ve just looked and we need to have applied for UC by March 28th and he will also get paid that day as the 29th is Good Friday 🤷‍♀️

I have read elsewhere of the suggestion that you apply on the day you receive your TC payment (if you are not getting this weekly) as the UC process takes 5 weeks, so this would minimise the amount of time you are without that income. The advice wasn't relevant to us as we get TC paid weekly anyway - we've just had to accept that we won't get a payment for 5 weeks. We could have put in for an advance but that would reduce subsequent payments so we decided to simply take the hit now.

Apply March 22nd as that is 7 days before the usual wage date. That's what the 7 days allows for early payments like the 28th payment due to Good Friday. Do not apply on the 22nd if you get tax credits that day ie on a Friday if you do you are best to apply on the 18th.

@JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue thank you, we get paid weekly too so same situation. I didn’t even know monthly tax credits was a thing! We are still deciding what we are going to do with the gap!

@DragonFly98 thank you! Our usual tax credit day is Thursday so would be Thursday 21st of March and the 28th but like you said could be paid early!

There is a transitional protection period, you can get an advance but you would need to pay this back.

Carers Allowance isn't affected by UC.

Honestly try entitled too. If you don't get housing element you get more work allowance for take home pay. You'll get a disability element for the children with dla. I think carers allowance gets deducted

We switched over from child tax credits a few months ago and it’s been absolutely awful so far. We received £100 less than expected in late November because they decided (without informing us) that £100 was an adequate monthly amount to pay towards an old tax credit overpayment debt when we had previously only been paying £20 a month, so that was nice before Christmas. Received no payment at all late December because DH was paid early due to Christmas and it meant his November and December salaries both fell within the calculation dates so we were entitled to naff all this month.

Switched in September and we’ve only been paid the calculated amount once, I thought we’d just get that every month regardless but it isn’t like tax credits and you receive less if you earn any more so yeah, overtime will affect your monthly amount.

Carers element is just an additional element on your UC claim if your child gets middle or high rate care. You have no work commitments if you’re a carer and have the carer element on the claim. It’s basically just additional money. You can still claim carers allowance too if you want too, that does get deducted from your UC pound for pound

It’s also based on earnings. So if DH does overtime then the UC amount will obviously be less based on what he’s earned

No but the UC amount is reduced £ for £.