Universal Credit - Are you entitled to claim if you’re taking unpaid leave?

[olivia40404]

Asking out of interest as I haven’t decided what to do yet with returning to work, and with the whole covid thing going on I would rather return to work as late as possible as I work in pharmacy and hate thought of putting my daughter at risk.

So maternity pay is paid for 9 months, then if you want to take the remaining 3 months off, you have to do so unpaid. If you take the unpaid 3 months leave, can you claim any kind of universal credit or income support in that period (if you’ve not claimed universal credit before)? Or is it a case of if you’ve decided to take it unpaid, that’s your decision so you get no financial help?

Have tried to google it but can’t really find any clear answers. My other half works full time & will be on roughly 18,800 a year before tax and NI (£10.05ph). After tax and NI he will be bringing in roughly £1400 a month, which isn’t quite enough to cover all of our bills.

Uc is different but on job seekers it's not allowed.

doubt they told the job centre that they were out of the country for a month

DWP knew about it.

"While on benefits you are not allowed to leave the country even for a 1 week holiday."

Not true, fortunately benefit claimants are actually allowed to go on holiday - much as Daily Mail readers hate the idea.

Certain benefits are stopped if you go abroad for longer than a certain length of time (HB stops after 4 weeks IIRC) but if your holiday is within the rules and you notify the appropriate benefits office(s), it's fine.

"You are also expected to look for work unless you are a full time carer or are parenting a child under 2."

Actually it's a child under 3. Primary carers of 2 year olds are expected to take reasonable steps to prepare for work but not actually work until the child is 3. Logical as funded childcare doesn't start until the term after a child's 3rd birthday.

There are also other circumstances which would mean not having to look for work, notably disability or illness which make the claimant unable to work.

"If you are part time or on a low wage it is also expected that you look for a job with more hours/better money."

This also depends on circumstances - a parent or someone with other caring responsibilities would not be expected to work full time; the same for someone whose health allows them to work part time but not full time; this can be discussed and negotiated with your work coach but as a general rule the main carer of a preschool would be expected to work 16h/w and a school-age child 25h/w (off the top of my head) but they care more about earnings than hours, so if you earn more than NNW you could work fewer hours and still meet the requirements.

The system can be harsh in many ways but thankfully it's not as harsh as you're making out.