Universal Credit

[sn21]

I get universal credit for me and 2/3 of my children. I get awarded my full amount of rent which is £922 however it has just gone up £30 a week I am now being benefit capped by around £200 which is pretty much the same increase in my rent. I already was only getting enough to pay the bills and now I'm in arrears with my rent.

I am already looking for an exchange to an older house that may be cheaper on rent but didn't know if I could request my rent being paid straight to my landlord if that would then be taken off my statement and I will get the rest of my awarded payment. I know it only helps out a little but I'm not even getting paid enough to pay my bills. I'm paying for shopping with my £50 weekly child benefit just really struggling to make ends meet and the last thing I need is to worry about losing a roof over our heads

More info needed OP, do you work? Kids dad around?

Your rent getting paid to the landlord won't make any difference to what you'll get. It's still counted towards the benefit cap.

So you'll have the adult element. Two child elements. Child benefit. And that's the minimum without knowing your full circumstances.

No rent (until £200 to pay this month). Probably no council tax. And you can't afford it already.

The issue is not that you have no money. You need to look at what you are spending it on.

And I say this as someone who had three children, on UC, and my rent being exactly £209 more than what I could claim. And I was not unable to live at all.

Are you private rental or council?

Ask for more hours at work?
Get a second job?

I think I understand what your issue is.... you get it all paid to you, but at times instead of paying your landlord you end up using the rent aspect for bills?

I got into a mess with rent in this way. I simply asked UC to pay the rent part direct to my landlord. They do so, I get a smaller payment from UC, BUT I know my home is paid for

How do people get the FULL rent paid off UC they never pay my full rent I always have to put around £50 a month to

Your LA will have it's bands as to how much rent you are entitled too.

For example, where I am, one adult, with 3 children, is entitled to a 3 bedroom house, with rent of up to £800 pcm.

If I was in London, they'd give me nearly £1500 towards my rent.

Can you contact your local council for a discretionary housing payment? Or something similar?

No I do not work as I cannot find suitable hours for work I'm solely single mum. We live in a village and the closest school is over a 20 minute drive. I get awarded £1470 from universal credit the rent was £922 which leaves £548 my bills are £627 without the increase in rent and energy bills soon going up. So I'm already currently behind and was making that amount up with the £50 cb each week, but like I said these figures do not include my weekly petrol or food shop

I would recommend contacting Z2k https://z2k.org/

Can you reduce your bills, they seem high? Any contracts up for renewal that you could get a better deal on? Social tariff on broadband? Is your energy dd accurate? Mobile phone should be well under £10, there are very cheap deals available.

Is there no council transport to school? I thought they had to provide if over 2/3 miles away?

Do you have lots of support where you live? If not I would seriously consider moving to somewhere with more employment opportunities.

I’ve been in your position and my circumstances only improved after I got a job.

Something's not right there. If you're getting £50 a week child benefit,you have more than one child.

If you have more than one child, your UC would be more than that.

Your adult amount is £368.74. Your first child amount is £315 and for a second child is £269.58. This comes to £953.32.

You said your full rent was covered before it went up £200 to £922. So you get £700 odd for rent.

£1653.32

Why do you only get £1470?

Because, as op says in her post, she is being benefit capped .

Why is she being benefit capped?

If it's because she's not working, whilst on a group expected to work, then her work coach will have applied the cap because they have found something she could do, but she's not taken it.

Are there other reasons? OP?

Everyone who doesn't work more than 16 hours a week, claim disability or pension benefits is subject to the benefit cap. Are you thinking of benefit sanctions?

The benefit cap is £1835 per month from this month so that is what you should receive unless you’re paying back an overpayment.

Can you get free school transport?

Can you apply for a discretionary housing benefit from your local council @sn21 ? I think that's what it's called.

The benefit cap is going up, but we don't see the increase until the May payment AFAIK. That will help.

How old are your DC, OP? Have you requested school transport?

The benefit cap is £1835 or £2,110.25 per month, depending on whether OP lives outside Greater London. Therefore, unless she is also receiving another benefit UC should not be capped at £1470 even taking into account CB on top.

then her work coach will have applied the cap because they have found something she could do, but she's not taken it.

That is not how the benefit cap works.

Rent will only be paid up to the LHA rate so it’s not necessarily the benefit cap it’s the amount of rent they will pay is capped.

if a child was born after 2017 then the child element is lower.

paying rent to landlord won’t impact the overall amount you get.
From May your Uc will be higher so that may help.

Honestly, unless there are other mitigating circumstances you need to work. If there is no work at all near you, eg shops, care homes etc, you will have to move. I'm a single parent working full-time and also in receipt of some benefits. Yes it's hard juggling everything but ultimately I need to work to pay for food, activities etc and why should others work and not me?

I probably sound harsh but if you have school age kids and are able to physically work, you work, rather than scrimping and barely being able to put food on the table!

Ah, yes I've got sanctions and capping intertwined as the same thing.

Essentially, what I was getting at, was no one should be "capped" at £1470 when they qualify for £1653 so there must be a reason?