Universal credit from tax credits

[LilyBlueShoes]

I'm so sorry to ask but it's a minefield.

I'm currently working 3 days a week (disabled) and have a child with numerous health and development issues also claiming DLA for them.

I currently get tax credits but keep hearing about being told that people have to start claiming UC. I've googled but I don't know what this will mean for me😕 can anyone help me understand it?

Yes it's happening but don't worry about it at the moment. As long as you don't have a change in your circumstances (move address, move a partner in for example) you will remain on tax credits until you are automatically moved over to UC. Think this process has been delayed until 2021.

HMRC and the DWP when this will happen. You don't need to do anything until then.

Thank you for the reply.

But isn't everyone worse off on Tax
Credits?

You won't have to claim UC for a long time. They will eventually be migrating everyone over but this has been delayed.

If you have a change of circumstances that mean one if your current benefits stop you may have to claim UC if you can't afford to manage without the benefit that has stopped.

You say you are disabled. Do you live alone and claim PIP or DLA for yourself? If so, you may be eligible for a severe disability premium. If you have this premium in one if your benefits already you currently won't be able to claim UC (and you would be significantly worse off if you did so that's a good thing!). If you have a change of circumstances you would be able to claim one of the older benefits instead.

If you have the option if claiming I would be very careful about claiming UC without advice and a benefit check. UC is a different ball game to legacy benefits. You have an online account that you have to actively manage and you may find that you are required to look for more work when b you weren't before. Currently the main problem with UC is poor decision making, lack of training and poor administration. Loads of things go wrong causing a multitude of issues that can take months to resolve. Plus the 5 week wait which can push people into debt at the start of their claim.

Personally I would wait as long as possible before moving to UC and hopefully over time a lot of the issues will be ironed out by the time you have to claim.

And no not everyone is worse off on tax credits. The difference in money is often not worth the stress of claiming.

^^ this

There are calculators online that should give you an idea of whether you'd be better off on UC.

At the moment I have no intention of moving and will stay on tax credits for as long as possible.

Thanks for the replies

I'm doing ok on tax credits. I have a partner.

How long before everyone has to move onto UC? Is there a deadline?

Do you receive the disability element of working tax credits ? if so then that doesn't exist on Uc but you may be better off in other ways for example your dh could claim the carers element of Uc if you claim the care component of DLA even if he earns too much to claim carers allowance. Lots of people are better off on Uc particularly those working. As others have said though it will be a long time before you go onto UC, only a very small number of people have been transferred to Uc through manged migration so far and I suspect that will be slowed even more due to current circumstances. Uc have had to deal with 180,000 new Uc claims over a few days at the start of lockdown, there is no way they can migrate thousands more over from tax credits any time soon.

It's not going to happen for a long time now.

"Managed migration
Now the rollout is complete, existing benefits and tax credits claimants who do not have a change of circumstance (see our What changes might trigger a move to Universal Credit guide) will start to be asked to claim Universal Credit through a process known as 'managed migration'. A small number were moved in 2019 but the majority won't start to be migrated over to UC until November 2020 at the earliest. The government expects to finish moving existing benefit and tax credit claimants onto Universal Credit by September 2024"

www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Universal-Credit-Pilot

Given the current situation, and so many people making new UC claims in the last few weeks, I think the managed migration is likely to take even longer. With the uncertainty with everything at the moment, I'd strongly advise sticking with TC for now.

Read up on transitional protection too. Its best to wait for the managed migration.

www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Transitional-protection-Universal-Credit

Stay with TC's.