Universal credit issue

[jaggyjaggy]

Can anyone help please.

Split up from my husband recently, its amicable and neither of us can afford to move out (believe me that is preferable!) we have two kids, 3 and 7. We both work but we have always claimed a UC top up.

So after finally deciding to split we notified UC and our old claim turned into my husbands own single claim and I had to make a fresh single claim of my own. We put a child on each of our claims as this seemed fairest way, as I tend to do most stuff for the 3yo and he does more for the 7yo.

We sent all evidence UC asked for, tenancy agreement showing we pay half rent each etc. Was supposed to receive a payment on 14th april for around £1350 (rent is covered, childcare, standard allowance, child allowance) but instead received £950. Ex has said he received nothing.

We have tried calling, leaving messages but no one will help they just say “under review please wait”

Then last week received a notification to say my claim has been put on hold but no mention of why or what I need to do or any details. Since then all my messages have been ignored.

Yesterday I called to escalate this and was told it would be referred to a case manager who would be in touch before 6pm today (friday) nothing as yet.

Am I being unreasonable here? I refuse to believe this is an unusual situation with housing crisis that we need to stay in the same property for a few months.

I am extremely stressed out and I am running low on food and I haven’t even paid my rent yet which is due on Monday!

Any help much appreciated.

Someone working full time on min wage will take home £1,703.11 after tax, assuming a standard working week of 37.5 hours (obviously a bit more if they work a 40 hour week which is also common).

Umm… you literally did though? YOU DECIDED to make a UC claim - no one forced you 🤷🏻‍♀️ Check your own privilege cause you are so entitled it’s painful.

There’s a process they need to go through to make sure you are eligible for what you are claiming. If you’d left it all alone until you were physically separated you’d be fine. Why have you changed it? Do you think you’ll get more as two individuals with one child each? You’d get more child benefit I suppose… if it increases your payments of course they have to look into it to stop benefit fraud?

Right but you take out WAY MORE than you put in? How can neither of you be earning full time wages at min wage and be entitled to so much? It’s baffling that you don’t have to work full time because you get so much handed to you.

And these adults are married but supposedly single now and STILL living together as a family.

Of course this will flag up an investigation with DWP

I am currently living in the same house as ex-p

I receive uc, he doesnt

Uc were really good with me when I called for advice

We had seperated, own the house jointly, the relationship was tbh financially abusive. He pays for nothing except things for himself. Every bill is in my name. I fully expected them to want all kinds of proof. But they were actuallu really decent and told me to just claim as single

I did so with no issues. But yes it took 5 weeks to recieve my first payment of the single claim

It could be see as dodgy, particularly claiming for one child each. The husband wouldn't be entitled to claim anything except perhaps rent without the child on the claim. And both claiming for a first child results in a higher child element than both children on one claim. Are the children really going to live separately in the future?

Yes @herbalteabagthats what I was wondering. When the parents physically split in a few months time, are they really going to have the children split, one living with each parent?
If not, then I don't think it's fair to claim 2 lots of child benefit now. That's the kind of thing I would be scrutinising if i was assessing this claim.

Why is ex on such a low wage - he’s not even earning nmw

or is he deliberately keeping wages low to get that extra (I know several people who do this)

as a single parent with a child at primary school - I have to earn just under £1400 a month - which is I think 30hrs nmw

if I don’t earn this , uc still put I have earnt this

assuming your ex was capable to work full time I don’t get why he was on a lower wage then me

and you get huge top ups - which I know is mainly rent but as another poster said - you get more in uc then they earn a month

the system is screwed. I have found this

So you want the taxpayers to pay you more as a family so that you can save up a deposit for a rented house? When your circumstances haven’t changed, (all the same people under all the same roof), you think you should get extra money because you’ve decided to ‘split up’?
What?
Well that’s all well and good in theory, but why should they?
You must look so suspicious to the UC people, as you do here.

”full time” is not the number of days but the number of hours.

That's not right.

If you are under the same roof but can show you're two households then you can claim as two singles.

You are living as a couple in their eyes even if you emotionally can't stand each other. When you think about it if they believed you then they would have to believe everyone who said they weren't a couple while living together.

Sorry I know this isn't what you wanted to hear but it's how they'll see it

@Upsetbetty I agree- and by the way I’m a centre left voter -sorry OP but cases like this need to be investigated - an acquaintance of mine a few years ago worked out they would be £480 a month better off saying they were separated - they got investigated in detail - turns out if living together still it’s not a shoe in despite what ‘mates’ had said. . In the end they abandoned the singular claims , ended up splitting anyway and didn’t change anything till in separate places - that’s what you should do if it’s amicable

No, No, NO!!!!

The guidance is here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7575a740f0b6397f35e96f/adme4.pdf

Provided you can show two households then separated couples under the same roof can, and often do, have single claims to UC.

Whether, when the co-parent children, the OP/Ex can show two households may involve a bit of legwork.

If, as I understand it, one of them is a TA then they probably get paid term time only but in 12 installments thus seeming to be on less than NLW.

Sure but you can't be too shocked that they don't believe her straight away. Otherwise anyone could just say that for extra money

I had no idea it is so easy to get free money/ really is shocking how people play the system.

I would expect it to go to a Decision Maker (DM). The DM may want more evidence that they have so far to confirm OP/Ex are sufficiently separate to be two households. As I said, co-parenting can make that a difficult gig.

My point is that it's explicitly provided for in the UC Regs and Advice for Decision Makers.

As somebody seeing this stuff day in, day out it's not that unusual.

Trying to get a private let on low earnings is incredibly difficult, more so in housing cost hotspots like SE England. Choice is to put up with living under the same roof or sofa surf.

Oh yes, it's really easy to get "free money" and live in poverty. I don't know whether the OP is trying to play the system or not, so I'll leave that to the DWP (who aren't exactly easy-going despite what people here might think), and I do appreciate that some people might have less household income that the OP (because their circumstances are different - otherwise they too would be able to claim), but it is estimated that 22% of UK households live in relative poverty after housing costs, 18% in absolute poverty (that's around 12 million people, about 4.5 million of whom are children).

I would prefer that a few people get to "skate the rules" (and to be clear, I do not mean commit outright fraud) if it means that fewer people live in absolute poverty - and that includes those on NMW who might also have a small amount of cash in hand from time to time that they "forget" to declare. It's small potatoes compared to over £5 billion tax evasion (which, interestingly HMRC attribute lots of that to the hard-working small businesses that everyone is so fond of using as an example of work ethic);VAT evasion (nearly £8 billion); and tax avoidance (about £2 billion) which is the rich persons version of "skating the rules".

And to be clear, I am no middle of the road leftie - I am far left, and if given my way I would put every single person capable of work and not in work into work (there is plenty that needs doing that isn't done) on the NMW, and tell them if they don't like it they can get a better job like others have to. I would reserve benefits at a much higher level for those who genuinely cannot work. But since I am not in charge, the world is as it is - benefits are not "free money", they are a passport to poverty, ill health and early death.