Universal Credit

[mrshoho]

My husband has today begun 12 weeks isolation due to being in the very vulnerable group. He's self employed so no income until June from the gov scheme. We don't know what to do in the meantime. I'm a teaching assistant 22 hours pw and still being paid. Should I make the Universal Claim in my name? I'm grateful that the gov is helping but June is a long way off when all the bills are coming. We can take a mortgage break thankfully but still way short. We have two children 15 and 13. I've looked on line but still unsure whether I put in the claim or should he or if it makes any difference? Talking of money when all around people's health is at risk seems pretty petty but I'm trying to be practical. I'm caring for elderly parents and inlaws with shopping and meds etc so having to leave the house more than I should to protect my dh as far as possible. It is just unbelievable how are lives have changed in such a short space of time.

You would need to make a joint Universal credit claim. You would get a couples element of £498, first child element of £277 and second child element of £231. This makes up your UC total of £1006. Then you take your net earnings ( assuming you are paid once monthly) and deduct £503 from that then multiply by 0.63. The figure you get is what will be deducted from your total UC for earnings. you will continue to be paid Child benefit separately.

You make the UC claim online, you both make sperate claims with separate log in details and separate email accounts. Whichever one of you makes the application first needs to ask for the linking code and then the second one of the couple puts in that linking code to link the claims together.

Please be aware also that if you currently get Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit that will end with a claim to UC. You will also not get help from UC with savings over £16,000. Lots of info on Gov-uk. Also be aware unprecedented demand for UC is causing jammed phone lines and crashing systems. Please persevere if you need to claim- we will get to you. Job centres are proactively calling people and are turning into mini processing sites. If you've made a claim please answer calls from unrecognised numbers as we are trying to get round the jammed lines by calling people to confirm ID etc.

Thank you both so much for this really good information. We don't get any tax credits currently but we do get child benefit and we don't have anywhere near 16k in savings.

thanks again.

Also, check if you qualify for Council Tax help from your local council. I believe they all have a form which you complete once you receive your UC statement, but worth checking that now in case end of month claims are relevant, i.e. if you have to claim by end of March for April.

thank you Diana I'll check that too.

Thanks again. We did the application and only delay is verifying my identity. It should take 15 minutes but the message coming up is up to 71 hours! It's digidentity. DH's went through straight away but maybe because I have an Irish passport mine is not straightforward?

I looked into council tax and filled in the form but they either want you to go to the office with docs or post originals which I'm not going to do. Why can't they do it online like the gov site?

Anyway thanks for your help and info. At least the app for UC has been done.