To be scared that I’ll trigger Universal Credit by doing this?

[ScaredofUC]

I just want to start off by saying I’ve two dc’s, dd is disabled, and I’ve already done the UC calculation. We would lose £400+ a month, we are already on the breadline and would certainly lose our home if we lost that money. There is nothing left for me to cut from our budget.

I want to better our circumstance and I’ve found a course with the Open University that I think could do that.

But I’m terrified of triggering a change over to UC.

As I understand it, if we can make sure our circumstances don’t change for a few more years we would get something called ‘legacy payments’ that ensure we’d be on the same amount.

I’ve tried calling the CAB but I need to make an appointment. I’ve called the Income Support number but the lady didn’t seem to know. She said it wouldn’t change our benefits but was quite evasive about whether it would be change enough to trigger a forced change to UC.

I was hoping there would be someone on mumsnet who would know more about this than me. I don’t want to make a mistake that could massively affect my dc.

www.entitledto.co.uk/help/changes_that_trigger_Universal_Credit

That link has a list of UC triggers. You've possibly already seen it. Does that help???

A part time OU course will definitely not trigger a move to UC.

Do you have a disability? If so there is an instance where it may affect your entitlement. I'll explain if applicable.

I do have a disability, I receive the enhanced rate of PIP.

Thank you, I’d seen the list but still worried that I could make us all worse off while trying to make us better off.

When you apply for funding to cover your fees, you'll be asked if your disability stops you from attending university in person. If you tick yes to this you'll be eligible for a maintenance loan. You don't want this, as it will be deducted from your IS entitlement. Ticking no still makes you eligible for DSA, and for disability support from OU.

If it doesn't make sense it will when you're going through the form. You tick yes to the other disability questions, just not that one.

Bombardier25966 thank you!

I ticked no on that box, as while my disability would make it very hard to attend university' if absolutely forced to I could cope.

Thank you very much, I feel much better now.

Any maintenance loan that you will receive will be deducted as income from income support, the course itself will not trigger a change but if the maintenance loan is more than you get from income support then IS would close.

You need to divide the loan by the number of weeks in the course to get weekly loan amount

I’ve just called Student Finance to double check. I definitely didn’t check that box and there is no application for a maintenance loan going through, only my part time tuition fee loan.

So I should be ok?

I read something about them counting it as if you’d had applied for maintenance for benefit purposes, even if you hadn’t, but as far as I can see that only applies to full time students I think. I hope anyway.

I'm a pt student at the ou and it hasn't affected my benefits (working/child tc)

You'll be fine. Yes, you're only treated as having taken the maintenance loan if you are entitled to it, and because you've not ticked that box on the form you're not entitled to it.

If you want to meet other people on the OU course there will probably be an active Facebook group for it. I'm taking some maths courses and they both have groups. Just search for the course code (eg M140) or the course name and it will bring something up. Good luck!

Oh that’s great thank you so much!

I’ll check out the groups later, feel like a massive weight has been lifted.

I found the tax credits chat / helpline quite good to check if things make a change. on the tax credits website. HTH