Universal credit

[iwanttoscream]

My daughter is 20, has had an ehcp/ statement of special education needs for for than 10 years.
We didn't put in for any benefits in her name until last October, put in for universal credit.
In November we started the capability of work assessment, still waiting for assessment.
DD found the pressure to much so we found her a college placement, which started 2 weeks ago.
Told her job coach verbally and via journal.
Pip application has been started in November, needed extra time so has an extension, form went in mid January.
I'm hoping someone can help clear up whether she will be able to stay on universal credit while waiting for capability of work assessment and pip assessment??
Her dad has just retired due to ill heath mentally and physically and reaching state pension age.
I've been a stay at home , due to her needs and my hubby's shift patterns. Don't have family to act as a back up.
Would like to get part time job for my mental health needs, but DD needs for us to take her to and fro everywhere.
Never been out of the house alone. Luckily college placement is walkable., though dad's knees are suffering 2 weeks in.
So we take it in turns, which limits what I can do.

PIP is completely separate to UC.
Your dd will currently just be getting the standard element of UC. If after the work capability assessment she is awarded LCWRA ( Limited capability for work and work related activity ), then she will get an additional £343 per month on top of her standard element.
If you have no income of your own and do not have savings over 16k you may be eligible to claim UC yourself depending on your husbands pension. One of you could claim the UC carers element once your dd's PIP is awarded.

The answer to this will depend on a range of factors:
Is it full or part time
What level is the course
Does your daughter receive any student loans/grants/bursaries
Is your daughter available for work

www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Full-time-students-and-benefits/Can-full-time-students-claim-Universal-Credit

Regardless, if UC is stopped and PIP is subsequently awarded you can request a revision of the decision and UC should be back paid.

Sorry I just re-read your post regarding your dd starting a college course. Are UC aware of this ? Students can't generally claim UC unless disabled, so as FTB says it may depend on PIP being awarded, how many hours the course is etc.
Is there any reason she hasn't been awarded DLA or PIP before now given her problems?

Thank you for your replies, DD college course is level 2, hours are 15 hours , or 20 once work experience placement is found. So is that classed as full time or part time??
Still waiting for EHCP to be updated, started college 1at Feb so still in this month's calculation. No loans, grants or bursaries. She has learning difficulties and delayed development on her fit note. Didn't have the courage to apply for dla years ago or pip, until end of last year. I only want to work part time, was hoping everything would be OK. Then start off with some voluntary work to rebuild my confidance. As dh got his work pension last year, we are over the threshold for uc.
Thank you

There should be someone at the college who can answer those questions, OP. Most FE colleges have someone who deals with student finance, and it's quite specialist.

Unless it's a straightforward degree, I'm never clear about what courses count as advanced and which are non-advanced and it can make a difference.

Getting PIP will make things much clearer, too.

When she got her letter with start date etc, there was a bursary form.
But as we were worried about whether dd could stay on universal credit they said to wait until we got pip.
Though even if we get pip for dd, she would also need either esa or universal credit as well to get the bursary.
Doesn't help that her twin brother who has 2 levels btecs and 1 a level hasn't really attempted to find apprenticeship etc, dh doesn't want me to push him to hard in case he has a breakdown etc. Have tried to coax him, but it's so hard, though he's off to pick up his certificates next week. I was really hoping dd would end up with a job after her assisted internship, but no luck. Then it was a slippery slope backwards in her and mine. Found universal credit effected both our mental health, as trying to secure new ehcp. From primary school it was easy decision main stream secondary or special school. We chose the special school, but last year we had so many options, felt we needed to try assisted internship even though we had 2 other options available.
The worse decision was not putting in for dla years ago, would've made life easier. Really could've done with a social worker Imput, though dh didn't agree,with that idea.
.

Is ESA a different thing than the work capability assessment??
If her universal credit stopped, I take it the work capability assessment would stop/ not take place??
If and when she got pip, how easy would it be to get her universal credit and would it mean starting the work capability assessment from scratch??
Had one job coach from start until Christmas, then as she wasn't on the kick start pathway, she got a new coach for ones not on kick start etc

Have put in her journal to job coach about her starting college, or do I need to report it elsewhere.??
Any help much appreciated..

How many hours would she need to be available for??
Would the work experience placement count, would unpaid work elsewhere count??

@iwanttoscream

Is ESA a different thing than the work capability assessment?? If her universal credit stopped, I take it the work capability assessment would stop/ not take place?? If and when she got pip, how easy would it be to get her universal credit and would it mean starting the work capability assessment from scratch?? Had one job coach from start until Christmas, then as she wasn't on the kick start pathway, she got a new coach for ones not on kick start etc

Have put in her journal to job coach about her starting college, or do I need to report it elsewhere.??
Any help much appreciated..

No -one can make a new claim for ESA now unless they are eligible to claim contributions based ESA ( called New style ESA ). Your daughter would not qualify for this as she has not worked and paid NI contributions. Students generally cannot apply for UC unless they have PIP in place , which is why I was checking earlier that Uc knew she was starting a course. Having PIP in place therefore can make applying for UC easier. However getting a PIP award can take some months due to backlogs, whether they will keep the Uc claim open that long I don't know, I guess they may if you are waiting for a work capability assessment. I know people have had a lot of problems recently with claiming Uc as a student in this situation. As Lakie lady says above, students claiming Uc is a complex area and you are best advised by student welfare advisor at her college. I have a lot of expereince of Uc and PIP but not with students, so don't know the exact rules. CAB may also be able to help. Hopefully they will respond on your journal, hopefully they will keep the claim open until PIP awarded.

Also may be a good idea for you son to claim UC, he may get the help he needs with looking for work. My son claimed it for a short while at age 19 while he worked out what to do. You need to be prepared that they will push him hard to find work/ apprentiship but also the work coaches can give lots of useful advice ad have knowledge of schemes etc.

Contact have lots of help and advice on this - it's not as easy now to claim UC whilst at college with PIP.

Thank you hopefully they will respond on her journal as the month assessment period ends tomorrow. It would be lovely if they kept it open until assessment.
They got form back 13 th of December, but I doubt it will be kept open. I suppose it will be down to there rule books.

Try to speak to Contact. The rules for claiming UC whilst in education have recently changed, further details here.

My job coach asked me if her course is full or part time, still waiting for that to be confirmed. Also told job coach we are still waiting for EHCP to be completed, college man was unable to comment on when they will be named. Copied in ehcp lady, no reply so far.
Found out today her work capability assessment is via video next Thursday morning.
DD had job coach phone call this Saturday, so hopefully she can answer some of our questions.
Will try and get hold of contact, she went on universal credit originally to help get into work. But they wanted her to commit to a minimum of 25 hours, someone was supposed to come and help at the first meeting. She let us down 3 times, so we both nose dived emotionally and confidance. So ended up putting in for this assessment. Then we decided it would be better for her to go to college, special needs one.
As the person who was helping wasn't able to find any work placements. Decided having her EHCP in place was more viable option.
My worry is if she gets put into lcw or lcwra will she still be able to stay at college, supposed we will need to find out on Saturday how being on universal credit and college works out?
Would love to hear from people who have had a work capability assessment.
To me it's not about the money, but for her work ability to be assessed etc, as she's no good at assessing her money without writing her pin on her hand.

Are you DD’s appointee?

LCW or LCWRA have no bearing on the EHCP and attending college.

When was the draft EHCP issued? When DD started the new college course did it involve moving establishment? If so, the amended EHCP should have been finalised at least 5 months before the move.

When the time comes to move on from the college look at supported internships or apprenticeships, both can be supported by the EHCP.

Is there any PfA and OT provision in the EHCP?

Though if she's found fit for work, they will expect her to start looking for work.? How many hours would they expect.
Hoping her new job coach is more understanding.
Also emailed my sil who said to apply for pip etc, once i applied she never replied so gave up asking her.
Wished i had put in for pip years ago or the dla. That's my down fall.

/

If DD isn’t assessed as having a LCW or LCWRA and is in full time education (which with an EHCP she should be, it shouldn’t be part time, and if it is part time the EHCP is useless and you need to focus on making that better) she won’t be able to claim UC.

I'm not her appointee, as we didn't want her to lose her voice. Plus as being older parents we wanted her to try and manage, as we won't be around forever.
She had 3 pathways to choose from and she tried the supported internship. But we didn't find out until she left school that finished the day she left school, carried on at the placement as unpaid work experience. But not offered paid work, so the organisation that organised it stopped that and we waited and waited for new placements that never materialised. So EHCP lapsed, though we never got cease to stop. For months tried to get ehcp written with other organisation, but realised it wouldn't happen. So went back to college, had to wait for paperwork to be sent to college. As they couldn't offer a place until they could see they could meet her needs.
She started at her new college in February this year, as her school only went up to 19 year olds.

College is 3 days of 5 hours, plus another day work experience placement. So 20 hours??
Would that count as full time or part time??
Others have pointed out that if she's on universal credit she would only get it if getting pip as well. Forms have been sent nearly 2 months ago, so still have quite a wait.
Plus used a online disability guide for pip, as citizens advice would only put down word for word. So we did it ourselves, as there was no way she would've coped.

Being appointee doesn’t have to mean DD loses her voice. What it does mean is you can help her with claiming UC and PIP.

The supported internship didn’t have to finish when she left school.

When was the last annual review or early review? The amended EHCP should have been finalised prior to now. It should have been finalised at least 5 months prior to the move. Write to the LA threatening Judicial Review as they are frustrating your right of appeal.


That would most likely be full time, although if DD needs 5 day provision it must be provided.

It used to be that a young person in receipt of PIP with LCW/LCWRA and in full time education could claim UC. However, now it is more difficult and complicated as the rules around UC and disabled young people in education have recently changed. See the link I posted above and this link.

Dd was awarded lcwra, they know she's on a college course.
She was also awarded pip enhanced.
Her accessment for both was combined accessment.
My query today is her college placement offered her payment contract which she accepted let her job coach know at the time she was OK about it, as we said dd was offered it.
Let uc know last month via her journal.
It's only until July term time so they set up a payment link, which we have done.
But on her to do list they have added health note to do.
Have queried it on her journal as we don't have a job coach now.
Been given lcwra for 2 years I think that is what the job coach said.
Do we just get fit note stating that she's only able to do her college work placement only on health note.
As she's signed a contract for payment until July 22nd 2022.
Any advise welcome.
Sorry for not replying earlier in the year, nearly lost my mum to sepsis, hypothermia etc.

Universal credit job coach knew dd had the offer of paid work experience placement for 5 hours a week term time.
Waiting to here from uc via her journal, should imagine will take a day or two.
Other times it can be same day or couple of days.
Would this lead to reassessment of her wca??
It's alright while i'm still alive, but it does make me worry for DD when i'm not.
Should imagine all parents of children /young adults, feel the same way.
If only i could win the lottery and set her up for life and say stuff it to the benefit system.... I wish..
Q1 Do we wait until we here from uc as to why she needs a health fit note or put one in. though can't do it until tomorrow as econsult is 8am -10am.
Q2 If we do nothing would it lead to sanctions?
Q3 Would a doctor say she's only fit for her college course 4 days a week and her college work placement 1 day a week. All are 5 hours per day.
Only had her annual review meeting for her EHCP last week. So with this today feeling frazzled.

Even with lcwra it is possible to work and do some work placements.

Have UC even asked for another fit note. What does her claimant commitment say?

Have you claimed carers allowance for being your daughters carer now she has PIP?

What is the actual to do on her to do list.