Are you better off on universal credit

[123Helpus]

Sorry another universal credit post but wondering has anyone had a positive experience with universal credit? After tax credit renewal we are now barely keeping our head above water and apparently will be better off on universal credit but wary?

I applied for UC on Monday and my tax credits award was immediately ended automatically. I still have 34 days before UC is paid, so that's nice.

Lift us out of the poverty cycle.

My tax credits payment would have come through next week. If I'd known this, I may have waited to claim.

@MeltedEggMum yes I understand that. They really haven't a clue about the cost of life in the real world. Just because your tc ends it doesn't mean you have no more expenses to cover.

We now have the fun of the tax credit people saying we owe them a lot of money ( we don't) I swear that office must be staffed by mickey, Donald, goofy and co.

Thankfully dp is actually a qualified mathematician and so is prepping for ww3 with them 😂

Another person here who's better off on UC. Admittedly only by around £50 because our earning are at the top end of eligibility. In general, couples where one or both parents work with 2 children will be better off.

The poster who said the housing element would be wiped out by their earnings, that's not really the case. Whatever your rent is, they add that to your original amount before deductions and then take the 63% off that total. It makes your total amount higher and so you're left with more after deduction. Even if you're not eligible for housing benefit (we certainly aren't) you're supposed to claim your rent costs anyway.

Yes we are much better off. My oh works full time and same money/job and when we was on child tax credits for 2 children I was getting £396 per month. Now we are on Universal credit I now get around £900 per month. Before we was told by housing benefit that we was not entitled to anything as my ohs wage was too high but now we get some housing element through uc. The changing over is a killer but they offer you a loan to help which we did. I borrowed the whole £1600 as it was Christmas too when I did it and I had no money saved and I am paying back £137 a month out of my money for a year x

In our area the highest housing benefit was about £999 per month. I think it's similar under UC. It's completely unrealistic in terms of the rent market. We were
Lucky to find rent within our budget in this area but at least it means the children attend good schools nearby.

On UC currently I would be £200 a month better off than tax credits. However, I employ a Nanny. UC do not fill me with confidence on how this will work with claiming the costs back. They want invoices. A Nanny is employed by me. So no invoices. Just wage slips.

Anyway, I will change - in October, through choice. The Nanny finishes on 31st August, and after the 4 week run on for childcare costs, I will switch as it will be better for my circumstance at that stage.

Disabled people and students are the worst off. My own child recieves DLA, but as he recieves HRC, he doesn't lose out under UC. Those in receipt of MRC and LRC will lose out on the disability premium as it has cut in half. Most other claimants are slighly better off.

The six week transition period was tricky, and ended up taking longer in the end, though they were great when I rang them and ended up releasing some of our payment to tide us over.

We also ended up having a tax credit overpayment which they took back (rightly so) in two huge instalments, without warning, right over Christmas. Could have done with knowing that was coming.

Since then it’s been pretty seamless. Though the way they pay and process childcare has been a huge issue and we’ve had to find over £400 a month for the last three months from nowhere while I wait for the childcare providers to give me letters and statements and things to pass on. This is despite me sending invoices, receipts and bank statements showing what we’ve been charged and paid. The upfront payments are really difficult to find, and I honestly don’t know how we’ll afford this months childcare bill. We’re both on minimum wage at present and just about ticking over.

Managed migration hasn't even started yet so no-one moving yet will have bene granted transitional protection. It doesn't start until July in Harrogate area and even then only starting with limited numbers to see how it goes..

@Babyroobs I've lived in Harrogate. I thought it was mostly full of 'old money ' and rich people but I was surprised to find poverty in star beck and jennyfields( I think that's the name, it was over 10 years ago)

I had a mate in Bilton who's family struggled a lot as well . The grandparents lived in high Harrogate though and they were quite well off.

My son is better off by £200 per month.

Thank you everyone for so many helpful comments and no judgement :) turned out we did have an over payment with tax credits but have taken the plunge and applied for UC anyway and can hopefully arrange a payment plan with them. Fingers crossed all goes well! Although can’t get much worse 😂

@123Helpus good luck 😉. It's early days with us and UC but they have been overall reasonable so far.

They don’t arrange a payment plan with you I’m afraid. They just deduct the overpayment from your award. I paid mine over 4 months.

Oh yeah that’s what I mean haha I meant I’m just hoping they don’t want it all in one go as it’s over £500 but over 4 months would do able 🤗

Hi!
I’m so sorry, I’m JUMPING ALL OVER THIS POST!
We’re in the same situation as yourself, 123Helpus.
I lost my job in January and am struggling to find another. I’ve secured myself a bank role, but as with any bank position, there’s no contract, no guarantee of hours or income.
I’ve completed an online estimate calculator to see what we’d get and, according to that, we’d get an additional £400 a month. £400?!
My local authority use the same online calculator to check eligibility, it was through their website that I got my estimate. I don’t have a CAB in my local area and, as I understand it, you can only ring UC if you have an account. But I’m so undecided!!! Even the online calculator website has 100 warnings on it regarding UC - “you can’t turn back once you apply”
I too just wish to hear success stories regarding UC. We’d get the housing element and also a disability element as we receive DLA for our DC.

But this would only be a temporary thing. I’d only wish to claim whilst our income is so low. I want a job, and don’t want to cause damage now that I can’t revoke (when my earnings start and UC payments drop- the risk they’d drop below our current TC amount)

Thanks all!

I’d be wary with a zero hours contract as your hours will vary. And that will affect your income every single month. So if you worked more hours one month you would get less UC the next month. BUT you May have worked significantly less hours that month so would in reality be worse off. You would get more UC the following month to reflect the lower earnings but it’s hard to have variation in the amount coming in when the bills stay the same.

That would be for the work element obviously the DLA would remain the same. But for every pound earned over £503 (that’s for single parents not sure what it is for a couple) you lose 63p in UC.

@kcelima watch this space 😉 I’ll update you what happens with our claim haha

Zofloramummy - thank you! So sorry, I omitted to mention that the bank position is only very temporary as well, until the end of July (in a school) so beyond that, I would be even more unemployed than I am..

The mentions of overpayment to TC concerns me.. how can there already be overpayments when we’re only now in a new tax year. Can that happen so suddenly?! It’s scary!

(Apologies to all as well, when I first discovered this post, I thought there was only the one page!! Haha! I didn’t realise there was a whole array of posts beyond the first post!)

@123Helpus Thank You!
I wouldn’t be looking at claiming, if I do, until around July as DH starts a new job then and my bank role ends then, so I don’t want to do anything whilst we’re in a grey area. It shouldn’t be this concerning, should it, but it’s such a risk, to the point if it continues to be any more concerning, I’d rather struggle on!

Noticeably worse off and have to jump through much more hoops. Also had many more problems with it.