Universal Credit elements stopping - help needed

[emmaw1405]

Hoping someone could give me some advise please.

I help my SIL with all money/benefit/housing matters as she had a form of epilepsy when she was younger which caused her to have absence seizures which effected her learning. A lot of things need explaining to her in a far simpler way.

She has five children aged 1, 4, 6, 7 and 9 and is a single parent. Only two of the children count for benefits. She works two full days a week which pays her approximately £815 a month and receives child benefit for all of the children. Her rent is paid by the housing element of universal credit directly to her landlord which is £390 a week. In December the nursey where she works was closed for Christmas so her wages went down to £713 for that month.

This month she has been advised that she will get 0 from universal credit apart from the rent being paid and approximately £90 towards an advance she took out when she had to apply for UC from the old legacy benefits. When I queried this to understand how it was worked out I was advised that it was because there is a benefit cap and that you can't earn over £2110 a month from benefits so obviously her rent being paid and the child benefit takes her over this. Does anyone know if this is correct? She has been asked to attend a meeting at her local job centre tomorrow which I am presuming will be about her working more hours so will be asking more questions then.

I'm getting so much conflicting information - the governments own website says that if your child is aged under 3 you don't need to look for work. When I asked this I was told this wasn't true. The website also says that child benefit is paid separately and will not effect the UC payments but now being advised that it does count as income. Any advice at all that I can give her?

Thanks in advance.

If you can, go to the job centre meeting with her so you can take notes.

No doubt you have read this - sees it out fairly clearly
https://www.gov.uk/benefit-cap

Any maintenance she gets from the father(s) of the children is not counted as income for benefits purposes - to the extent she doesn’t get any she should raise a claim with CMS

Also, re working, she can claim for child care costs via UC

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/cost-of-living/get-help-with-costs-if-you-have-a-child/#:~:text=If%20you%20work%20and%20claim%20Universal%20Credit%2C%20you%20might%20be,child%20turns%2016%20years%20old.

Bloody Nora she needs some contraception too. Maybe a LARC

@emmaw1405 the benefit cap is tricky.

If your sister had earned £793 for the assessment period, she wouldn't have a benefit cap. But she only earned £713, so she falls under the benefit cap.

The benefit cap includes child benefit, even though you normally get it as well as UC.

Does your sister get any disability benefits? Has she been assessed for her capability to work? If she gets PIP then the benefit cap doesn't apply.

@VanCleefArpels Thank you - I'll be going with her

Yep - she's an idiot who has got herself into this situation when we've told her time and time again. But my MIL picks up all the pieces with childcare, feeding the kids, taking them to school etc. so there are no consequences for her actions.

Your MIL? Why?

https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/find-information/benefits/benefit-cap/#:~:text=Here%20we%20explain%20how%20this,or%20%C2%A322%2C020%20a%20year.

This might be useful.

She does too much, which we keep telling her, but we can't physically stop her. We've told her she's not helping the situation but not much else we can do.

@Lougle we're in the process of getting all her documentation from the hospital and doctors. She's capable of work so it will be getting her extra hours.

If she's capable of working full time she needs to work full time. If she's learning impaired due to her epilepsy (not uncommon) can you support her to claim PIP as she can't manage daily life admin with out and advocate?

Lots of useful links above. There are some exceptions but not if the only reason you otherwise don’t have to work is child under 3.
There may be the grace period if SIL has been earning above the correct amount in the last 12 months. If she was in the same job may not if nursery was closed then as well.

MIL is in the picture but no partner / dad to contribute?

I read it as the OP's MIL- so the SIL is OP's partner's sister.

I think that's the most confusing sentence I've typed on here!

Yes, it's my husband's sister, so her mom. The father of the kids also has another three kids by two other women. That's a whole other story! My MIL is old school Irish who wouldn't see her grandkids suffer because of their parents.

The person we saw at the job centre was patronising and condescending and I genuinely feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with him. Couldn't really get a word in as he kept up a car sales man patter and when I asked questions such as "On the Universal Credit website it says X this could you explain more" his response as "well done, congratulations, that's fantastic you've found that out". It was like he was talking to a dog who'd learnt a new trick. When I asked him if he could help signpost us to food banks etc. I was asked what help I wanted? Do you have an information sheet with local food banks on etc. Nope, go and Google it yourself. We were then basically dismissed - he never even told her why she was there. At one point when I asked my SIL in a question he just kept on with his patter and spoke over us but I stayed calm, was perfectly polite and didn't rise to him. We walked away and went back to the front desk.

I asked the member of staff at the front desk for his manager's name so that I could make a formal complaint and the person I was speaking to realised that I wasn't a shouty nightmare (you get better results when you go about it in the right way) so we then saw another adviser who was lovely, looked at my SIL's record and saw she was on the old style benefits so it was the first introduction to universal credit and having to attend with a work coach etc. He had basically done everything wrong from the minute we sat down and she apologised to us. She was amazing, couldn't thank her enough and we also left with a food bank referral and more information that I wasn't aware of with regards to her gas, electric etc.

I'll be looking to apply for PIP for her once I have all the documentation and she's also going to ask for extra hours at her work. Thank you for all the links.

All correct, she’s not earning enough to avoid this. The single AET is increasing again in April. I work for a local authority and so many are caught out by this.

she needs to earn minimum £893 per month, this is going to increase again in April.

The best place to go for honest and up to date help and information is Citizens Advice