Was on WTC but now Universal Credit?

[Realitea]

I wonder if I've made a mistake!
Me and DH were getting working tax credit, child tax credit and some housing benefit. Both self employed, I made about 200 a week and he made less.
As my wages go up and down a lot I always thought universal credit would be messy if ever had to go on to it.
Since the virus came about, I thought I had no option but to go to universal credit and applied. They promptly stopped all our tax credits and we're without anything much until it comes through.
Dh is now asking how I even changed it to UC.
I don't know - I thought we'd get additional help. Now I'm wondering if I've screwed up badly and we should've stayed how we were albeit on hardly any money to live on!

Once you claim UC tax credits and HB stop. There is no going back I am afraid.

You can contact UC and ask for and advancement which they will reclaim from future awards for 12 months.

Yep you should have stayed as you were and waited till the self employed help kicked in. Maybe just letting tax credits know wages had gone down and seeing if more was due to you.

No going back now but you may find UC ok as a small proportion do.

However going forward when the minimum income floor is back to normal (currently suspended). Most self employed find UC very penalising and unfair and obviously less money.

I am not sure what additional help you though you would get. You should have stayed as you were but its too late now. You can apply for an advance though.

Uc can be better for people with fluctuating income because it's based on real time rather than annually like tax credits. So if you have less income from employment Uc will top you up more . However as pp says, Uc is not terribly good for the self employed as the minimum income floor would ordinarily be applied if you have been self employed for more then 12 months. This means you are treated as if you earn a certain amount even if you don't. It has been temporarily suspended though.

Also as others have said you may be able to take an advance payment as long as your ID has been verified and you have not yet had your first payment. Look on your journal home section and it should tell you if any advance payment is available to you, you may not need to ring them. Waiting times can be long at the moment on the phone lines.

I feel such an idiot. I think it’ll really screw us up as dh has a small business which is still growing and he’s not drawing much out of the business at all.
I’m thinking I’m going to have to leave my job and do something much more mundane and work for someone else

Yes, once you claim UC that's it, no going back.
This is why we haven't done it, tbh. I couldn't be doing with all that conditionality and job centre interview that will be back once this is over.

Real
It may not be that bad. You will have a joint claim and even though self employed your DH will still be allowed to claim as long as his earning dont take you over minimum income floor which is based on 35hpw at nmw.

You may be the same or better off hopefully not less.

Also if you have young children , one of you is nominated as the main carers so their conditionality won't be as many hours as the other.

You are not an idiot, it’s a stressful time for everyone.

Thanks everyone