Worried about universal credit transfer in the future

[samanthajayne17]

I'm a stay at home mum. My Husband works full time and we have 5 kids. He's on low income. At the moment we claim child Ben and child tax based on his wage and we don't get any other help. Reading about universal credit scares me because my says current claimants of tax credits are being moved over on to UC in 2018. So next year and that means we will lose tax credits and child Ben for 3 of our children. Tax credits and child Ben helps us a lot as by time he's paid rent and council tax form his wage as well as has and electric and other bills he has nothing left. So I use child Ben and child tax to buy food and clothes and everything else. So we will be losing a massive chunk in income form next year. I won't get a job by next year. I can apply but due to my husbands awkward shift work I can't work around him. We could never afford child care and we have no family and friends to help. It says that once your circumstances change whilst I'm UC all the policies start to apply to you. So if we are moved to UC I'm 2018 and I get a job then I will lose even more due to my income even though I won't be able to work full time and won't earn much. So it's really pointless me working as we will be worse off but we will also be worse off without me working. We will also not be entitled to housing benefit or council tax support when we lose income for the other 3 kids so we
Will really really will struggle. Is anyone else in the same position. What do I do?

What you might find is that if there is a more 'popular' shift (where covering it is generally not a problem), he might be able to come to an arrangement where he always has that shift off. It'd leave him with the crappy shifts (Monday morning & Friday afternoon or whatever), but that might be better for you as a family. If he puts in a formal request, there are only a limited number of grounds on which they can refuse - ask in the employment section on here if you want some help with it.

Hi Samantha, I've just read your post on the thread about childcare support through Universal Credit. Sorry to hear you’ve been finding the system so worrying and concerning. I work at Save the Children, where we’re running a campaign called Make Childcare Work which is all about fixing the types of problems with childcare support in Universal Credit that you’ve been facing. It would be really great to hear more about your experience to help us inform the campaign. Would you be happy to have a quick chat to one of our team about it? If so, please email us at [email protected] and we can arrange a time to chat. Hope to speak to you soon! Best wishes, Maddy

No one will doubt that you had 5 children because you wanted them rather than to make extra money, but that doesn't take away that you chose to have children that you and your husband couldn't support making you strongly dependent on benefit. This is what the government is trying to stop. Many working couples not entitled to any tax credits have had to choose not to have more children despite the same desire because they couldn't afford it.

Your OH needs to be realistic. There are no miracles. Either he starts to look for another job that means more regular hours so you can go to work to when you have to, or you'll have to accept to make serious cuts to live on what he earns and CB. I would think the latter is far from ideal, so he will have to realise that supporting you to contribute to supporting your family is his first priority.

The good news is that you have some time to prepare for it. As suggested, maybe you could see about doing a course, anything to help with your self-esteem. You might find that you actually enjoy working some hours.

I’m a bit confused, UC doesn’t currently accommodate more than 2 children. Whilst I’m sure everyone will move to UC at some point, it won’t be anytime soon.

People will 5 kids won't be moved over at any point soon. When they are moved over they will have transitional protection so you should continue to get tax credits for all 5 assuming they were all born before April 2017.