Could anyone explain universal credit to me?

[PurpleSapphire]

Back in the day as a single person/lone parent you could either claim jobseekers/income support or work 16 plus hours to come off it then you would be able to get help such as working tax credits etc.

Is this different now? A friend who lost her job last year has found a new job 8 hours a week with a view to increasing hours up to full time. She says they just decrease the universal credit the more you earn.

I've heard terrible things about how universal credit works but if this is true surely it would be a game changer for lone parents being able to take jobs for a few hours until more hours became available instead of not being able to apply at all because it wouldnt be enough to live on without being able to claim help, and would be fraud if still on jobseekers/income support.
Or have I misunderstood?

Depending on the age of the children. There is an expectation to work 24 hours a week. I think. The more you earn then of course the benefits are reduce by 65p for every £1 earned.

They will also pay up to 85% of your childcare.

I find the entitled2 website calculator helpful.

You are able to work on the legacy benefits too.

You get UC if child is below 3
You can earn 500 ish before they start taking money away.
The system is all online so good if you have access
They also pay 85 per cent of childcare which is pretty good!
Then you have to look for work after they're 3 - any children...

You can get UC after 3 but they expect you to be actively looking for work

Universal credit is replacing 6 benefits for new claims. You cannot claim the old benefits again if you move across so it is important to consider carefully if you are better off.
You can always work on universal credit. from when youngest child is three the commitment includes looking for work, but not full time at the start. (This does apply to carers or someone disabled or assessed as too ill to work.)

If you have child and get help with rent then they ignore £293 that you earn each month. If you don’t have rent then they ignore £515. After that universal credit is reduced by 63p for each £1 earned. This is called a work allowance and also applies if someone is assessed as too ill to work.

Citizens advice have a large section on universal credit. If you want to do a benefit check you could use a calculator. Note the government increased the allowance to live on due to Covid and that is stopping September (there was increase on the working tax credit as well) If you want help with a check or information there is a helpline called Help to Claim.

The information and these links are for England. There are different rules particularly in Scotland.
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/benefits-introduction/what-benefits-can-i-get/

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/helptoclaim/

Thanks for that, I think i'm confusing myself or i'm very bad at explaining! As I understood it, (I know the ages changed under old rules, 12 then 5 then 1?) you could claim income support until your child reached a certain age when you would claim jobseekers instead. On both of these benefits you could also claim child tax credit and child benefit. You were not allowed to work on jobseekers, you had to work a minimum of 16 hours to come off jobseekers and then be able to claim working tax credit and childcare.

So what i'm saying is, a job of 8 hours wouldnt have been possible because you couldn't work while claiming jobseekers but wouldn't have qualified for any help if you came off it because the rule was you had to work 16 hours or more. Unless you claimed a dwp benefit of some sort you couldn't claim anything related to it ie help with rent, dental treatment, prescriptions etc from my understanding of the old rules and therefore an 8 hour job would be out of the question, it wouldn't even cover rent.

Hope that makes sense although i'm not sure it does

You could work less than 16 hours on the old (tax credit) system. I did!
I didn't claim JSA as I wasn't seeking work, but I got CTC, housing benefit, free prescriptions etc.

UC credit replaces pretty much everything. You can work as many or as few hours qs you can get work for. But, depending on the age of the child they might make you look for more work.

Well it would have been possible @PurpleSapphirein because in those days you could just say you were self employed for the other 8 hours and sell a few bits on ebay for example. Hobby business to come of JSA and onto wtc were actively encouraged.

Well clearly my jobcentre advisors were crap then when I was in that position as they never told me any of this. They pushed me to apply for full time jobs as a single parent and made me sign some sort of form to say i'd been warned i'd be sanctioned next time if I didn't. This was about 12 years ago though, my dc are young adults now.

@Sophiemac1989 you can’t make a new claim for tax credits only UC.

@PurpleSapphire also unless you buy a new hone with the proceeds of sale I think within six months it will be classed as savings and you need below £16k to claim any UC.