Tax credits or universal credits

[littlebeebop]

Has anybody made the switch from tax credits to universal credits and been worse off?

I've done the calculators and they said I'd get quite a bit more from universal but I know these calculators are not alway accurate and don't want to stitch myself up!

Tax credits over paid me and deducting it from payments so I'm already really struggling atm!

Thanks

If you have over 16 k in savings you cannot claim UC. Anything between 6k and 16k reduces your monthly Uc payments by £4.35 each month for every £250 over 6k. If savings are over 6k and they fluctuate each month you are meant to keep them updated.

Well that job center lady should not be telling people that ! She should be advising people to get a proper benefit calculation done as many people are so much better off on Uc and could be missing out on large amounts of money due to her poor advice !!
If you get paid four weekly there is one month a year on Uc where two pay days will be counted and your Uc is likely to be reduced. You get paid more all the other months compared to someone on the same earnings who gets paid monthly so it's just a matter of working out when your month where 2 paydays will fall will happen and just savings a little all the other months to have a bit set aside for the month where payment will be low. Obviously if this month falls soon after you first start claiming UC it is going to hit you harder than if you've had time to prepare for it. It should be pretty easy to work out when it will happen, you just need to plot your pay days and your Uc assessment period dates and see which month 2 pay days fall.

Not everyone will be better off on uc I just done the calculator thing to see what we would get under uc and we would be £200 a week worse off I really don't see how we can switch will have to wait it out until we are forced to switch.

I don't think there is any circumstance where the difference could be that much ?

Those of you on legacy benefits not sure if you should move to universal credit, maybe because you don't trust the calculators or you're not sure how UC works, I advise you to contact Citizens Advice Help to Claim service. They can do a "better off" calculation and answer your questions. No obligation to claim UC if you decide not to.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/helptoclaim/

@AnotherEmma this is what I did. Eventually I'd be better off but because I'd have to take the advance payment whilst waiting for my claim to go through, I'd actually be worse off by £81p/m until it was paid back. Which takes over a year depending on the advance. I was also advised that self employed people like me would always be worse off on UC. So yeah I'm dreading the enforced switch.

"I was also advised that self employed people like me would always be worse off on UC."

That's terrible advice. There are rules about claiming UC when self-employed (and it can get complicated) but it's by no means a given that self-employed people would always be worse off on UC

Why are some people better or worse off? I don’t get how it works

Depends on a lot of factors. It's hard to explain concisely in a single mumsnet post Basically, legacy benefits (including tax credits) and UC are calculated very differently. There are lots of different things that affect the calculation. But as a general rule, on UC more earnings are ignored before they start reducing your benefit.

Because some people will have been on tax credits but unable to make a new claim for housing benefit so will benefit from the rent element on UC. UC childcare element is slightly better then tax credits. Also on UC you can get a carers element and there is no threshold for earnings with that, so if you earn too much to claim carers allowance but still care for a disabled person you can get the carers element on UC. Also there is no non dependent deduction on rent element for under 21's so someone with for example a 19 year old working non dependent would have their housing benefit reduced on legacy benefits wheras on UC, they wouldn't. So lots of factors affecting why one person may or may not be better off.

I've just calculated mine and UC to TCs is over 2/3s less. I cant get my head around how the difference can be so much. I work full time already but in a low paid job so my earnings aren't significant, no where near. Im a single parent to one. My home is mortgaged which I think is why it's such a big difference. But it all really scares me how drastically my income is being pinched and potentially set to fall further (not that there is any more to pinch. I have nothing left as it is)

I’ve been much better off. I rent though.
made the switch as my housing benefit was hugely reduced when ds2 left education at 19 and was worried how I would cope on my own.
citizens advice walked me through it and the man at the universal credit office where I had to go to provide my id, advised me to take a n advanced payment to pay back a couple of small debts as it was an interest free loan.
I pay back at £75 a month and still almost £300 a month better off than I was on tax credits abs housing benefit.
if you’re worried call. Citizens advice they can run the calculations for you. They can also provide things like credit for pre payment meters, charity funds for appliances etc during your application to help you through the 4-6 week that you won’t receive a payment unless you take an advance.

Actually on Housing Benefit there is no NDD for young people under 25 (whereas with UC it's 21)

this is not true for all local authorities. The one I am with definitely make a deduction. Ds2 was 19 and it hugely reduced my payment. I appealed as I couldn’t see how it effect it so much but the decision was upheld and

@UnicornMadeOfPinkGlitter

I reported my post and asked for it to be deleted because I realised after posting that it's wrong.

On HBB, there's no NDD for under 25s who are not earning - if they're in paid work there would be a NDD.

sorry!