How do I find out exactly how our benefits will change if we have a major life change,

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For example, if DH were to give up work for a year.

We currently both work full time and are entitled to anything between 0-£100 a month UC, it's usually about £30.

Some of you may have seen my recent post but we are really really struggling with our son who has ADHD, he currently gets mid rate DLA and will do until he is 16.

After a 3 hour awful, violent meltdown from him last night which did not end until 3am and had me call 999 3 times (they did fuck all exact words "what do you expect us to do, he's 11" and "there's nothing we can do he is 11" despite me saying that he was attacking my husband, threatening to stab us, smashing the house up and my 4 year old was shaking with fear, I digress).

I am at the end of my tether, working full time in a stressful job, whilst sorting all the kids, juggling meetings with DS's school, fighting for an EHCP and so on and so forth.

I asked DH to take time off for a year, he works long hours and can't drop tools to see DS at school for a meeting and DS only attends 2 hours a day.

He would claim carers allowance and balance out the work/life load especially for me. Something has to give.

If I have worked out UC correctly, we will just about afford it.
But how do I check for sure before we make the leap and get it wrong?

In his name? The kids are both of us, surely it's in both our names? We claim together, we live together it's all one, surely,

Thank you, I appreciate it.

I've just looked and out CAB is open Fridays appointment only. So I will be making an appointment ASAP

Yes he would, he's really great with stuff.

I don't think he would be able to do it longer than a year though.

But a year taking the load off me would be so helpful.

Oh!!! Brilliant, this is what I need, thank you!!!

I think the reference to your DH having CB in his name was so he got the National Insurance credits (which you get until child is 12yo and you are caring for child/not working

You get NI credits if you are claiming CA and not just until your child is 12 like CB

No if your son gets middle or high rate DLA you should be getting that now. It’s separate to CA

If not you should put a note in your journal and ask for it to be back dated to when you notified them of the DLA rate.

For each pound that you lose from your husband's earnings, your Uc will increase by 55p. I assume one of you already claim the Uc carers element ? If so all your UC elements will stay the same, it's just the deductions for earnings that will change. If your dh claims carers allowance alongside UC then you are no better off for doing this as it is deducted from UC pound for pound at an averaged monthly rate. It is worth him claiming though as it will give him a better class of NI contributions towards his state pension.

We would only be able to claim the carers element if he claimed carers, and that can't be claimed if you earn more than £134 a weeks so he definitely couldn't work full time

Carers allowance and carers element of UC are two different things, the carers element of UC should be applied automatically if your child receives DLA.

DS turns 12 in 2 weeks so it sounds like that might not make an impact. Which is good because that sounds like it could get complicated.

Nope forget anything about equality here it's about protecting his ni conts until your youngest is 12. My hubby has the chb in his name as his employment is less predictable so it protects his ni conts for his pension.

Your dh would not be sanctioned on UC at all if he is giving up work to be a carer for your child. As a carer he would have no work commitments so cannot be sanctioned. As poster above says if you are not currently getting the carers element, you need to report a change on the HOME page of your journal that your dh is a carer, and then ask for carers element to be backdated as you have been missing out on £168 a month ( now £185 since April increases).

I've just looked at our payments.

Is this the carers element? It just says "disabled child"

No that is the child disability element for your child getting DLA.

The citizens advice says you get carers element if you claim carers allowance.

Carers element definitely isn't added automatically because it hasn't for us.

Carers element would be listed as carers element and would be £163.81 ( old figures) and £185.86 new figures.

Sorry I just went back to the website and it says even if you dont claim carers allowance.

No that's incorrect. You can claim carers element even if working full time as long as caring for 35 hours a week and your child is in receipt of a disability benefit. Report the change on the home page of your journal asap and ask for backdate. I got it backdated for one of my clients the other week and it was sorted very quickly- they got 18 months backdated !

Jesus so we have been screwed out of that, we have been so so broke I can't even explain.
And we could have had that? That makes me want to cry.
They have screwed us over so badly in the last 6 months, making mistake after mistake.

It will go to a decision maker but very likely to be backdated quickly.

They will never tell you what to claim but when you make the application it asks if you are a carer, so you should have reported that when your son was awarded DLA. I understand you won't have known but they won't tell you either. Good news is it will be backdated. Report the change then leave message on your journal asking for the backdate. Put the date you started caring down as the date the DLA was awarded,

Oh God, there was a guy in the phone telling me I could get carers element and I got really mad with him because I thought he meant carers allowance and he was insistent I could get it and I was insistent that I couldn't!!

He must have meant carers element! 😭😭

Ive just noted the change in UC, thanks for pushing me to understand this!

It is confusing. It is probably one of the few good things about UC that you can get recognized as a carer and get that bit extra even if you earn too much to claim carers allowance.

Go to Citizens Advice, they can do a benefit check and a "what if" scenario so you can see exactly how benefits may change

Uc is an easy enough calculation to do yourself.
Total up the elements you are eligible for - I can't see your full statement but if you have childcare costs on there and won't be using childcare once dh finishes work then take the childcare element off and assume you will be getting the carers element of £185.86. I assume you have a mortgage rather than renting as I can't see a rent element on there.
So you would have
Couples over 25 element of £578.82
Children's elements £584.58
Lower disabled child element £146.31
Carers element £185.86
Total UC = £1495.57 ( calculated at new increased rates).
Then you take your net earnings for the month, minus £631 work allowance ( assuming you have a mortgage ), then multiply by 0.55. This will give you the deduction for your earnings from your total UC.
If dh wants to claim carers allowance then he gets paid that separately and it is deducted from your UC.