Will UC payment rise when maternity pay finishes?

[Ghayx]

Hi
I’ve recently just started claiming universal credit , while on maternity leave . I’m a single claimant.
my leave actually finishes this week and was due to go back tomorrow .
however I’m now considering not going back to work ( basically my baby is poorly and my boss thinks I’m now totally not reliable and received nasty messages from her because of this situation )
im now thinking I do not want to go back to this job.
will my universal credit increase higher as I received my last smp end of may ? And no other payments coming in .
I’m trying to work out if I can survive a few weeks without going back to this job while I find something else .
thank you !

Does your UC include a Housing Cost Element to cover rent?

This may seem unrelated to your question but it affects the Work Allowance, ie how much SMP you've been able to keep before your UC is affected.

Yes it will rise. You don't actually need to work until they are three.

It will rise but if the OP lives with her Mum or pays a mortgage so does not get housing costs in UC she'll only get a few quid a week, maybe £13, increase in UC.

If she has Housing Costs then UC will go up by around £50 a week.

Either way, she will be worse off than on SMP.

Hi I don’t claim housing , as I live rent free. Live on my own but my ex pays the rent , as we recently split this was the agreement we made . Otherwise I wouldn’t afford private renting on my own and wanted to stay put in the same house and area for my older child’s school.
I don’t know how I would go on as the rent agreement was in both of our names when we moved in , but I’m scared to change it to just mine as on paper I couldn’t afford it on my own . Hope that makes sense 🙈

No I don’t claim the housing part.
so I wouldn’t really get much more?

even if I don’t claim the housing part ? Getting confused 😂

If you’re not working your basic UC will be: £393.45 (assuming you’re over 25) and £287.92 for your child. Without housing this amounts to £681.37.

Then you’ll have £102 in child benefit, and whatever child maintenance your ex pays for your child. Unless you’re disabled or have a condition that prevents you working this will be the maximum allowance.

You will get council tax relief I believe.

Yes I’m over 25, I have an older child too . So would that be the same amount for another child added on ?
My last payment from UC was £1031 , then I had my smp too added on top . so would the amount still be around the same as my last payment from UC ? Even tho I’m not getting smp anymore ?

You'd get the total of your elements before deductions. The total will be on your statement. UC , for people with kids is much better for people who are working because you get the work allowance, so basically most of your smp would have been totally disregarded because of the work allowance and would have caused little if any deduction on your total UC. Therefore you will be a lot worse off not working. Uc is a pittance for non working people unless you have people with disabilities on the claim and therefore get extra elements that way.

If you have no housing costs and no income, then you'll just get the adult over 25 amount, plus 2 x the child amounts. £393.45 + £333.33 + £287.92 = £1014.70 if your older child was born before April 2017. (Edited because your older child must be born before 2017).

SMP would have given you a work allowance of £673 because you weren't claiming housing support. So the first £673 of your SMP wouldn't have had deductions made from them.

thank you for this ! So I had £23 deducted so I would probably only get the £23 more a month on top .
so you get paid a work allowance too ? I worked out I would probably come out with £700 wage going back to work . So this would be on top of my wage ?
sorry for the questions it’s all new to me 😂

Thank you for this !

You don't get paid a work allowance, but you get to keep all of your earnings up to £673 per month because you are in work and don't claim housing costs. After that, every £1 has 55p deducted from your UC claim.

No, you do not get “paid” a work allowance.

The work allowance is how much you can earn before your UC payment would be reduced.

The way the system is set up you should always be better off for working.

OP, I might be wrong on this, others might be able to advise - but your ex paying your rent seems like a poor arrangement. If he paid child support directly to you , you would get (substantial) help with the rent in your universal credit payment. The child support would not reduce your universal credit payment. You’d be a lot better off.

i was just worried as the rent agreement originally has his name on too . I’m scared to change it incase I get kicked out with not earning enough to cover rent on paper ?
I thought I would have to show the rent agreement to UC when claiming this ?

This isn’t necessarily true.

Her ex will be paying a lot more in rent than he would be paying in child maintenance, and there’s no guarantee that UC housing element would cover the entirety of the rent (depends on rate for area, bedrooms etc) which potentially leaves OP worse off.

You’re right OP. UC can and do ask for evidence when trying to claim the housing element such as current tenancy agreement. If your name isn’t associated with the property then you can’t claim it.

I would definitely be asking questions of landlord and looking at figures. If you can and ex can have reasonable conversations it would be in both your interests to look at this in a combined way. You could both be better off.

Yeah so it still has both of our names on . I just wouldn’t want to risk changing it , as I couldn’t deal with the stress of finding some where else to live with everything else going on . I think I shall stick to my ex just paying the rent still

Yes and you do get a higher work allowance when not claiming help with rent so you are benefitting a little that way if you can't claim help with rent.

Realistically how long do you think your ex will pay your rent for?

I would play around with entitledto website with the figures working and not working.

Well I worked out that child maintenance would be around the same amount as my ex still just paying the rent . So that’s what I agreed with him. so he still pays the landlord directly .
hoping that’s the right thing I’ve chose to do 🙈
yes will have a play around with the calculator on there

I think OP said it was a joint tenancy. In that case she should get help with rent and, under the 'untidy tenancy' rules she'll probably get the full amount subject to any limits under Local Housing Allowance for her rent.