Is anyone on MN a Universal Credit work coach?

[PollyEsther]

Not an attempt to start abusing people, I just have two specific questions that neither citizens advice nor the UC helpline could answer! I was advised to go to a job centre but our closest is ages away and I've honestly never been to one.

We currently claim tax credits, but these have been reduced due to an overpayment and it's causing us to really struggle. I'm considering moving over to UC before we are migrated as we are entitled to more UC than TC.

However, I will be teacher training in September and in receipt of student loan. I'm aware that this will be regarded as income and our entitlement affected accordingly but it is still higher than tax credits.

My questions are: in this circumstance, would I be expected to look for work? Training involves full time placements as well as full time education. I am also carer for my DS who is in receipt of DLA, though being in education means I am no longer eligible for Carer's Allowance. This means I will literally be unable to work until training is finished next year, but obviously if you do not meet your claimant committment you are sanctioned. I won't be able to claim if I would have a work committment.

Further, if we change over now, will we still receive the £650 payment that has been offered to those on UC/TC? This isn't a deal breaker but would be good to know.

Many Thanks if anyone can answer these for me!

Firstly tax credits disregard a lot more of your student loan than UC do. How much better off do you expect to be. Who did the calculation?

Also the tax credits overpayment could be recovered from your UC at a rate of 25% of the couples element.

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

you won’t have work commitments

the universal credit £650 you had to of been claiming on May 25th or before so you wouldn’t be eligible

Thank you, this is my most pressing concern and that's really helpful. Tax credits actually don't count student loan income at all (rightly, IMO), but because we aren't claiming anything else at all, such as housing allowance, we are entitled to significantly more via UC than TC, even after the 25% reduction. Our tax credits are currently reduced by 50%.

@SBParker99 I am already in receipt of tax credits and eligible via that, so wasn't sure it that eligibility would follow us if we move over.

That makes sense with the housing costs. Does the calculation include what UC will take into account for student income.

cost of living payment.

Tax credits
You may get a payment of £650 paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324 if you have an award of any of the following:

Child Tax Credit
Working Tax Credit
Eligibility
To get the first Cost of Living Payment of £326, you must have received a payment, or an annual award of at least £26, of tax credits on any day in the period 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022.

We will update this guidance when the government has announced the qualifying dates to get the second payment of £324.

If you have a joint claim with a partner, you will get one payment of £326 and one payment of £324 for your joint claim, if you’re entitled.

If you get both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit, you will receive a Cost of Living Payment for Child Tax Credit only.

If you get tax credits from HMRC and a low income benefit from DWP, you will get a Cost of Living Payment from DWP only.

When you’ll be paid
You’ll get the first payment of £326 from autumn 2022 and the second payment of £324 from winter 2022, if you’re entitled.

If you also get a qualifying disability benefit, you may get an additional Disability Cost of Living Payment from DWP.

Disability benefits
You may get a lump sum payment of £150 if you’re getting any of the following:

Attendance Allowance
Constant Attendance Allowance
Disability Living Allowance for adults
Disability Living Allowance for children
Personal Independence Payment
Adult Disability Payment (in Scotland)
Child Disability Payment (in Scotland)
Armed Forces Independence Payment
War Pension Mobility Supplement
Eligibility
You must have received a payment (or later receive a payment) of one of these qualifying benefits for 25 May 2022 to get the payment.

If you get a qualifying disability benefit from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and a qualifying disability benefit from DWP, you will get a Disability Cost of Living Payment from DWP only.

When you’ll get paid
You’ll get the payment from September 2022.

If you also get a qualifying low income benefit or tax credits, you may get an additional Cost of Living Payment.

www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment#tax-credits

there is no info on how it’ll be paid if tax credits stopped.

Thanks @CornishTiger yes, the calculation I was given by citizens advice was considering all the student loan as income, although I believe there is supposed to be a disregard of around £110 a month? I'd rather not rely on that though as that's my contigency then.

The £326 will be handy, but actually having a higher guaranteed monthly income will be much more handy as I won't have time to constantly rejig the finances and scrape the barrel in the yellow sticker section of the supermarket when I'm training full time!

I really appreciate your help and advice. I spent all day looking and calling but still couldn't find a definitive answer for the claimant committment.

I am not a work coach (and to be honest a lot of the work coaches I know may not be able to answer your questions) but I am a civil servant with a vast knowledge of uc, don't want to say anymore! 😀 I can confirm that full time students are put in the no work related requirements work group so you would not be expected to look for work. Also you are a carer for uc purposes as you do not need to be in receipt of Carer's Allowance to receive the Carer's Element. Cornishtiger has answered the question about the cost of living payment.

Agree with fluffy. Carers element too.

It’s pretty crap no one could tell you!!

also on UC you can get broadband deals discount. Watersure and winter fuel discount.

Can you post the calculation. I’d like to check it.

Thank you so much @Fluffmonkey82 that’s really kind of you.

@CornishTiger I would, but it was done over the citizens advice web chat and I didn’t get a full breakdown. I was told it would be in the region of £357pw.

Basic info being 2 adults, one in full time employment earning £1900 after tax, one a full time student.

4DC, 15, 14, 10, 8. 2 (eldest and third) in receipt of DLA, one mid rate, one higher and both in receipt of low mobility.

Rent for a 5 bed (4 bed allowance on LHA when we got it) £1295.
We pay our full council tax liability at £1918 per year. This is already reduced for the disability.

No savings/assets. No other income.

I forgot, my student loan is £10745 over the year. It’s higher than usual as a longer course than undergraduate.

I’ll need to put that one into a calculator!

male or female for the 15, 14, 10

Do you have a help to save account?

www.gov.uk/get-help-savings-low-income/eligibility

To calculate how much student income is taken into account I would need to know the course dates and your assessment period dates, student income is divided by the number of assessment periods between the start and end date of the course and taking off the £110 disregard..I am in Scotland, the usual student loan amount is £3750 odds..usually works out at around £565 deduction...I need to get a pen and paper! 😀

@Fluffmonkey82 thinking 9 or 10 assessment periods. My head is banging today so not thinking too straight

Haha, sorry Tiger! It's a September-June course, finishing just before the end of the school year. I don't know about assessment period dates as I haven't actually applied yet. I'd like to be as informed as possible before doing it as I'm aware there's no going back!

I do have a help to save account, it's empty. It's also nearing maturity and no point putting anything in it as it won't increase the bonus.

Children are 3 boys and a girl in that order. We had an extra bedroom allowed due to the nature of the boys' ASD meaning they can't share when we did get LHA.

I'm so grateful for both your help, thank you.

I have done a rough calculation based on housing costs of £1295 being paid, including the carer element and the disabled child elements and taking off earnings and student income based on taken over 10 assessment periods I get £1695 per month but as I say it is a rough calculation..remember you are exempt from the benefit cap as you have children in receipt of DLA, also cornishtiger is right about the 25% deduction for the overpayment but if it a struggle you can contact debt management to agree an affordability figure.

I don't know anyone who has been better off switching over to UC.

Thank you @Fluffmonkey82 it's still hugely more than our current tax credits after the 25% reduction.

With regards to assessment periods, DH gets a monthly bonus most months, which varies wildly. Does UC adjust to account for that, and when it does, if it becomes a 0 award, does it still recalculate the next period? I'm obviously happy to have it accurately reflect pay each month, but having to reapply every time he gets a decent bonus will be soul destroying and I don't know if I'd bother if I can be earning next year anyway.

@RoRoRoh we get less than 25% of the quoted entitlement above at the moment... We've been told we'd be better off for some time now but avoided changing because of the horror stories but I'm worried about paying the bills come the winter

Re bonus, if DH is paid via PAYE then it will be taken into account automatically.

I think the uc claim is closed if there's been no payment in 6 months, but the odd month here and there of no payment won't make any difference.

He is, lego, thank you!

See, an hour or so on MN has been more helpful than my entire day phoning/webchatting people. Gaah!

I'm so, so grateful to you all. UC has terrified me if I'm honest, so I've avoided like the plague. But we are really struggling to make ends meet now so I think I need to bite the bullet. They will more then likely migrate us next year anyway.

I'll put the application in tomorrow morning.

Thank you all again, so much! for everyone, particularly for not being judgy towards us or those who help out on these threads despite the backlash those working for DWP often get. You're all fantastic!

And as a PP said, phone Debt Management if the deductions are causing you hardship.

Tax Credits love people moving to UC as overpayment debt is transferred to DWP and automatically attached to UC award.

Citizens Advice have a Help To Claim line if you're struggling to make the claim yourself or you'd like further benefit calculations www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/helptoclaim/