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Original poster

Universal Credit - is this right?

24 replies

stiltonontoast · 18/12/2018 11:23

I work 16h bring home roughly 750 a month, dh works 40h brings home roughly 1265 a month. We have 1 DS who is 10 months, we pay around £200 a month for nursery 1 day a week.

We checked and we can claim UC of nearly £200 a month. I was rather surprised as we never qualified for any of the old system benefits apart from child benefit obviously.

Now I've been told we can claim back up to 85% of our childcare costs on top of this.

Does this sound right / plausible? Or is anyone in a similar situation?

I have a meeting tomorrow to finalise the whole claim so I would have thought someone would have said - no you're not eligible at some point, but all seems to be going through. I am surprised but don't want to get my hopes up.

OP posts:
Lovelife12345 · 18/12/2018 13:10

Hello.

I have applied recently between us we are bringing home £1800 a month. Two kids and childcare of £196 and online it says I get £560 a month! My claim finalises inn a few days for the first assessment period so as soon as I know I can let you know if it's possible xx

Original poster
stiltonontoast · 18/12/2018 13:43

Thanks for your input @Lovelife12345 ! So it seems mine would be fairly accurate based on your calculations.

Lets hope it works out for both of us! Would really appreciate it if you let me know how you get on!

OP posts:
Lovelife12345 · 18/12/2018 14:25

@stiltonontoast of course I will.. it will hopefully be nice to have some positive posts about UC all I ever hear is being complaining about it. Usually by people who don't work anything is what I seem to have found. Everyone complaining is one earner families or single parents not working. I have never had anything bad to say about tax credits up until now even as a single parent because I still worked it worked in my favour. I have family and friends who said it's worked out well for them so I think its primarily down to individuals. My assessment period ended today so I am hoping that I will find out next few days what the entitlement will be and I'll let you know.

Babyroobs · 19/12/2018 09:49

The childcare costs just becomes another element of Uc that you are entitled to and the whole UC total is reduced by earnings minus the first £198 if you rent. So your childcare element would work out at 85% of £200. Childcare has to be paid upfront then claimed back, there can be problems with this. Do you rent or have a mortgage?

Original poster
stiltonontoast · 19/12/2018 13:57

Thanks @Babyroobs we rent. 860 a month.

OP posts:
Babyroobs · 19/12/2018 14:23

You would definitely get some help then as your rent is high.

ViragoKnows · 19/12/2018 14:28

it will hopefully be nice to have some positive posts about UC all I ever hear is being complaining about it. Usually by people who don't work anything is what I seem to have found. Everyone complaining is one earner families or single parents not working.

I think you've forgotten the terminally ill and disabled in your smug generalisation.

ViragoKnows · 19/12/2018 14:29

(You absolute amoeba.)

Babyroobs · 19/12/2018 14:38

Virago - there are problems with Uc and the loss of sdp but they are rectifying this and have said those that have lost out will be compensated. For people who are on ESA and not claiming DLA/PIP the Uc rates are slightly higher. I work with terminally ill people and help some of them to claim UC and except for one case ( in the very early days of the UC roll out) there have not been problems, well not any worse than under the old system. The five week wait is a problem especially if you are terminally ill, they really do need to look at this and make some kind of quicker payments for this group of people. Being able to claim the carers element if you have a disabled partner is better especially if you earn too much to claim carers allowance.

ViragoKnows · 19/12/2018 14:42

Absolute nonsense. A whole tier of disability premiums have been removed as policy. Many, many seriously ill people have been found fit for work, some of them paralysed, or otherwise completely dependent on others for their care. Others have died following sanctions.

Lovelife12345 · 19/12/2018 14:42

@stiltonontoast ok so my assessment for this period has come back.
We earnt £2195 between us, have two children, childcare was £184, and rent is £625. As my partners was was five week or meant it was about £195 higher than usual. We have been given £378 for the month. Which is higher than tax credits. I hope this helps.. our assessment period was 19-18 x

Fairylea · 19/12/2018 14:45

Some people will be better off under uc.

We have one severely disabled child and under universal credit we will be £80 a month worse off.

Whyislarryhappy · 19/12/2018 14:45

Correct. If your child is in paid childcare then the uc is the equivalent to child tac credit!

Whyislarryhappy · 19/12/2018 14:46

Tax even!!!

Conseulabananahammock · 19/12/2018 14:50

Amazing for some. However if you have severly disabled children you care for it isnt working out so great .
Think its diabolical carers allowance is only 64quid a week aswel. Surely universal credit should help people like that..
Not even going to get started, totally in the wrong mindframe today. Annoys the life out of me.

Babyroobs · 19/12/2018 14:55

Conse. On Uc you get a £156 Uc carers premium as well as the carers allowance paid separately. UC will also top up your income if you only get carers allowance and will help with rent etc.

Babyroobs · 19/12/2018 14:56

why - Childcare element of Uc is actually slightly better than it was on Tax credits so works out better for some. There is still a maximum you can claim.

Conseulabananahammock · 19/12/2018 14:58

Is that right roobs? Totally not what i read. Dont particularly think i will be moved onto UC as im only on tax credits, dla for son and carers allowance. Could be mistaken. As proved above. Ive beem told a few times people are worse off under UC in situations like mine.

ViragoKnows · 19/12/2018 15:01

On Uc you get a £156 Uc carers premium as well as the carers allowance paid separately.

No. The carers allowance is deducted from the UC but a (lesser) premium added. I did three of these last week.

Babyroobs · 19/12/2018 15:16

Conse - I think it would depend what rate of DLA your son gets, hopefully you wont have to move soon.

Original poster
stiltonontoast · 20/12/2018 09:46

@Lovelife12345 thanks for that!

I had my interview yesterday so now they've got everything they need from me. What happens next? I thought they'd ask for payslips or something.

If they are monitoring my dec-jan pay I'm screwed because my boss just put my Christmas bonus in with my normal pay.

OP posts:
Lovelife12345 · 20/12/2018 09:54

Log into your online account and itnwill tell you the dates of your assessment period. Usually it's day you submitted claim. So I submitted mine the 19th November so my assessment was 19th November-18th decemver.

They get your wages straight from HMRC. So once you both have your interview if it's a joint claim then just keep a eye on your journal to see if anything needs doing. When you to your childcare upload it straight away... so I always take a picture of my internet banking with the payment and the invoice (screenshot is fine) and upload it onto the site: they will then tell you how much your getting paid a day or two after assessment period and then pay you 7days laters xx

Original poster
stiltonontoast · 20/12/2018 09:59

@Lovelife12345 mine is 8th dec - 7th January - which means it'll include my £100 bonus. Not sure how this will play out then...

OP posts:
Lovelife12345 · 20/12/2018 10:06

Just type that figure in on the entitledto website.. I doubt it will affect it too much.. as my partners wage we had a extra week on and we didn't lose too much compared to the estimate xx

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