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!

I am a specialist benefits adviser.

I'd be very very cautious about claiming UC if you are about to be a full time student. I'd have that calculation checked and double checked before you apply.

If you are repaying a Tax Credits overpayment, have you taken into account that this debt will pass over to UC and the deduction will continue. This may or may not be at a higher rate.

You CAN also be subject to work requirements as a full-time student but only during UC assessment periods (APs) where your student loan is not taken into account (ie during the long summer holiday).

If you are a carer for one of your children no work requirements will apply to you anyway (you will also get a carers element as part of your UC)

Watch your assessment period dates and how these fit in with course dates. This can affect entitlement as it can change the number of APs the loan is divided over. The AP in which your course ends each year is ignored...

Example:
Assessment period 17th to 16th.
Course starts: 28th September.
The first deduction will be for assessment period 17th September to 16th October.
Course ends: 19th June.
There will be no deduction for assessment period 17th June to 16th July.
The last deduction will be for assessment period 17th May to 16th June.
This is 9 relevant assessment periods.

Note that the Special Support Element of a student loan is ignored as are certain grants. Not sure if any of these apply to you?

Have you not asked tax credits for your repayments to be reconsidered? I’ve known them reduced to 5% of the award

Hello, thank you for your response.

When you say the overpayment can be recovered at a higher rate, do you mean percentage or pound for pound compared to now. I thought the highest deduction for this would be 25%?

I am DS3's carer, though cannot be in receipt of carer's allowance whilst in education. I've applied for that today though, as over the summer I am technically not in education, my course has finished and the other not started, so I thought it was worth asking.

I don't really know how/where to have any calculation checked, by an organisation like citizen's advice? I have spoken with them today. I cannot use online calculators as they are not suitable for students. It's been a frustrating few years to be honest in terms of uncertainty around finances due to this.

I'm also a bit confused by the assessment dates to be honest. If I applied tomorrow it would, presumably, fall on roughly end-end of the month basis. The course starts at the start of September so the assessment periods would just be the months from September through to the end of June?

This is why I've avoided it. For a system meant to 'simplify' things it seems so much more complicated.

Yes. I called and asked to negotiate a lower reduction and I was told it's either recovered at 50% or not at all as standard now. We are not in enough hardship to be considered for not at all.

I would have thought CAB would have advised against UC.

Did they give you print outs and comparisons of conditionality.

UC will recover the tax credits at a higher rate than HMRC and are much less open to negotiation.

Does your child get DLA is it middle or high rate?

Seriously it’s about so much more than the numbers.

Even your date of claim can matter hugely.

Get your overpayment checked to see if it is correct and then renegotiate repayment at a lower rate.

Yes you will be migrated eventually but will receive transitional protection if you wait.

You need proper informed detailed advice especially about being a student, having a husband who works, housing costs and children one of who is disabled. A good adviser would take a bit of time over that.

It would then be clear in your head.

HMRC like 50% because they are grabbing it back before UC migration but the adviser you spoke to is wrong they will take less.

How many hours actual study will your course be?

I'm afraid a work coach won't know the answer.
You need a benefits specialist.
If you contacted Citizens Advice via web chat you won't have got a benefits specialist and you are not likely to have got the most experienced adviser (although they are supposed to check complex queries with supervisors even on web chat).
My advice is to try the Help to Claim helpline (phone) and ask about your options for specialist advice - you'll need someone who knows what they're doing to do a detailed "better off" calculation and look up all the small print in the benefit handbooks. This is the kind of thing I love doing because I'm a geek You could ask for advice from the Help to Claim lead (each team should have one) or an appointment with a benefit specialist. Another option is to look up and contact your local Citizens Advice (rather than the national HTC helpline) as that will get you through to the team who deal with all benefits (not just UC) and will be able to consult with supervisors and specialists.
This is not a calculation I'd want to do on Mumsnet, I'd want access to the benefit handbooks at work and would want to run it past colleagues.
So my advice is to try these avenues and hopefully get someone who can give you definitive advice.

@AnotherEmma is right mumsnet can’t answer this, the devil is in the detail and UC has a lot of hidden detail. It takes a specialist not a general helpline.

Does your uni have a student benefits specialist?

I'm still not sure what a higher rate of claw back actually means tbh. If UC take 50%, we will still have twice as much coming in from DWP as we do now. I was put through to recovery in TC and they absolutely refused to budge. 50% or no recovery at all. I don't know how I'm supposed to argue with that, I literally cried on the phone to them. The overpayment is correct.

My study is a PGCE, it is full time, probably even more full time than my husband's employment when I'm on placement.

We have 2 DC in receipt of DLA, one higher rate and one middle rate. The higher rate is the younger child.

However, I accept concerns that people think I should have proper advice. I will try and find somewhere local to help. We don't have a CAB anywhere near as we are an affluent area.

It isn't through uni, it's a SCITT. They definitely don't have that.

@AnotherEmma I really appreciate your advice, thank you so much.

UC pay about £325 less a month for Middle rate care than tax credits do but yes you and your DH could make that up in the carers premiums, but you wouldn’t actually gain by the carers element because you would lose on the child disability element.

I don’t know what your 50% clawback rate is so can’t compare.
How would you bridge the 5 week gap with no tax credits?

Hey. I’m having the worse day here so can’t do the calculation myself at mo. However I would use the CAB help to claim helpline. Every area will have a specialist lead.

You need to compare like for like entitlement before the overpayment deduction too. So what mostly tax credits would you have got before the deduction?

How much is your husbands bonus a month?

Does your council have a welfare rights service or is there a charity linked to your children’s disability who have benefit specialists?

We get tax credits 4 weekly, I would try to apply so that we are already waiting 4 weeks. We can manage to muddle through one extra after that. We receive such a small amount at the moment, I could always borrow from DM if necessary.

Can UC take more than 25% then? That's one thing I did seem to be able to find earlier!

No they can only take a maximum of 25% in total of the couples amount for your recovery of tax credits , advances , fines.

The only time they can take more is an overlap of housing benefit overpayment

@CornishTiger I really appreciate your help so far. DH's bonus fluctuates monthly. Can be £200, can be £2000. Hence the tax credits overpayment. I had declared a yearly income slightly above the previous tax year but he earned huge bonuses in March and April that generated the overpayment so quickly, it wasn't really possible to inform them of such a huge jump in income before it had happened.

@dustandroses I don't know the answers to those to be honest. My children have ASD, I've never found any charity remotely helpful for them except Cerebra for DLA application guidance and the Family Fund once a year for equipment for them. I will investigate the council, but again, affluent Tory area so I wouldn't want to hold my breath.

Oh and if it makes you feel better we always knew we’d be £300 better off on UC a month cos of housing costs. After two years It took the pandemic to make us claim as I didn’t want to go into the jobcentre. Some people are better off on UC. However you need to know your stuff.

Even when it’s an extra £2000 a month he’d still only have 55% of that taken into account.

The work allowance was already factored into normal wages.

Therefore your claim prob wouldn’t close or be nil.

They aren’t closing claims at moment unless 6 assessment periods of nil.

Thank you @CornishTiger, that does reassure me a bit. The process is terrifying! I wouldn't do it if I wasn't becoming desperate. We've been trying really hard to stop having to rely on this sort of help to get by, we managed to cancel housing benefit around 2 years ago for instance, but then the world went crazy and now we're really struggling on just tax credits. And even then only half of our current entitlement!

We still don't know if DH will make the same amount this tax year, which might then mean we end up with an underpayment etc. The month to month nature of UC being more accurate vaguely appeals.

I do completely understand people's concern about our unique circumstances, but we get so little now it almost feels worth the 'risk' of moving over.

OK so you would claim say the day after you got your tax credits. Some of that may need to be repaid as an unavoidable overpayment but yes it would help tide you over.

Its 25% of the personal allowance which is £525 so £131 a month.

You need to focus on conditions too especially when studying, not like for like now. Do you have rent or mortgage?

Oh and as a carer you will have no requirement to look for work.

Yes, that's what I would try to do!

We do privately rent. We pay back more than that now, so I do think we'd be better off overall?

When you say conditions, do you mean the claimant requirements? For me and/or DH? Would these change when I'm studying again, he will still be working full time? Lord, why is this so complicated?! I've tried to work out any entitlement as if we are in our circumstances from September, so hopefully I've taken these things into account?

Again, I can't say it enough, I'm so incredibly grateful to all you knowledgeable people for the time you've spent answering my million questions!

"We don't have a CAB anywhere near as we are an affluent area."

Really? I assume you don't live in a city then, as the big expensive cities (London, Oxford, Cambridge are the top three most expensive I believe) all have Citizens Advice offices and people who need them.

Have you put your postcode in here?
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/contact-us/#h-find-your-nearest-citizens-advice

You can't possibly work in benefits, then, because there are plenty of people who are better off on UC.