Universal credit unearned income

[JessicaKenny2018]

Does anyone understand universal credit?
We are being moved over to universal credit and on entitled to it says they will take £603 in unearned income does anyone understand this?
My son is disabled which meant I had to give up work last year to look after him properly and unfortunately my partner is suffering badly with a mental health condition which has left him unable to work at the moment.
Any advice would be great.

Are you claiming carers allowance for either of them and does your husband claim contributions based ESA ? these two amounts would be deducted pound for pound from UC as they would both be paid separately. Also something like a private pension would reduce it pound for pound?

Not sure what unearned income means . But if you receive Carers Allowance . They deduct that amount from your universal credit . So just for an example say universal Credit awards you £600 a month and Carers Allowance was £200 a month you would only get £400 from universal credit xx

Carers allowance is averaged out at a yearly rate then divided between the 12 Uc assessment periods .It used to be £279 per Uc assessment period that was deducted but may be more now if carers allowance has just gone up with the changes form April 8th.

I do get carers allowance for my little boy but my partner doesn't claim esa, they are saying they would pay £1100 in total I also have a little girl, my concern is that £575 is towards my rent do they seriously think people can live off £500 a month

The rent element amount would be based on local housing allowance in your area if you private rent, You wont be living off £500 a month though will you as you will have DLA, carers allowance and child benefit coming in separately from UC. Also if your partner is unfit to work then he will be assessed on Uc for work capability and could get extra money on top for having a long term illness.

What I've noticed is is that there is a question on entitled to asking if my partner worked for more than 26 weeks between April 2015 and April 2017 if I tick yes which he did the calculation comes out at £1100 a month if I tick no it calculates universal credit amount as £1500 a month is this because he's entitled to contributory based benefits?
This seems a little unfair he's worked his whole life and the system punished him for it

So assuming you are over 25 you would get on UC the £498.89 couples element , rent element, 2 x child elements ( possibly totalling £508), you will get a carers element of £160.20 and a disabled child element depending what rate of DLA your child is getting. Then you have deductions for Carers allowance which is paid separately.

yes if he has worked and paid NI contributions during tax years 2017-18 and 2016-17 then he may be entitled to claim contributions based ESA ( now called new style ESA). this would be paid separately to Uc and deducted pound for pound. Or he could not claim it and just wait to be assessed on Uc as long as he hands in sick notes. There are benefits to claiming new style ESA if he is entitled to though as it protects his NI contributions going forward.

just to make it clear if he claimed new style ESA then that would be paid separately also but then deducted from total UC. It would only be paid at an assessment rate of £73.10 initially until he has been through a work capability assessment. he cannot claim this until all sick pay has been exhausted.

I understand what you are saying but currently my little boys dla is spent on him every month he has speech therapy privately as he has been on the nhs waiting list over a year and is non verbal.

Basically from what I understand if you have worked then you get less

Yes and that's what DLA is for, but if you have a child on DLA you still get extra element on UC for having a disabled child and you also get an additional carers element. I'm not sure the calculation amount you gave is correct, the online calculations often aren't . It may be best to go to your local CAB and see if they have the new UC teams who can do you an accurate calculation. Your elements just couple sand child elements come to over £1000 a month without rent element and disabled child element and carers element even factored in so I don't think it's correct.

So is new style esa claimed separate to universal credit or is the case that when yo claim universal credit it automatically happens? Sorry I know nothing about benefits

No you don't get less - the new style Esa is paid separately and deducted pound for pound ,it's exactly the same amount. As with carers allowance they average it out over the year and divide by the 12 UC assessment periods.

Ok so he hasn't claimed esa so I'm taking it that it won't be taken into account

He would claim the new style ESA separately if any sick pay he had from work has ended. It is paid separately and then deducted from UC pound for pound. Sorry it is complicated.

It wont be taken off Uc if he isn't receiving it no.

Has any sick pay he was getting finished?

Yes his ssp has been exhausted

This is the calculation

ok so he could start claiming new style ESA now, it can be backdated 3 months if a bit of time has passed since his sick pay ended. His employer should have sent him an SSP 1 form which he will need to be able to claim and he will need a sick note.

Ok, yeah he has a current sick note

I've no idea why they are deducting £603.41 for unearned income. Sounds like the disabled child element is perhaps added in to that calculation with the children's bit maybe. Do you rent as there is no rent element on there unless higher up ?

It would be £1797.54 UC and from that approx. £279 per month would be deducted for carers allowance ( may be a bit more if carers has gone up recently ). So £1518.54 UC + carers allowance of approx. £64 per week + child benefit + DLA. If your husband did decided to claim New style ESA whatever he got for this would be paid separately and then deducted form your monthly UC. You should also contact your council as you should be eligible for some council tax discount. Hope you manage to get it all sorted.

Thank you I really am confused though as to why there saying they would deduct so much or is the calculation including contribution based benefit on his behalf because I have ticked that he was working over that period