Joint UC calculation

[Linkedin721]

Hi, hoping someone can help me work out my joint UC claim as DWP cannot advise me of my calculation until the end of June. It’s a joint claim, I can’t work out of the monthly award will be £99.65 or £469.80 due to the wording surrounding LCWRA work allowance. I work full time and my husband is signed off from work (self-employment) , no children and no housing element (live in mortgaged home). I earn £1697 net after tax, NI and pension. My husband has been signed off sick since February. He is expected to be assessed as LCWRA. When calculating UC I was confused if my husband’s £673 work allowance applies to my income. If so will the calculation be my wages (£1697) - work allowance (£673)=£1024 when wages taper x 0.55p = £563.20 total deduction from £1033 claim (couples allowance £617 + £416 for husband’s LCWRA) = £469.80 total UC award. If my husband’s work allowance cannot be applied to my income then the calculation would be £1697 x 0.55p = £933.35 deduction from total £1033 = £99.65 total award. Thanks in advance and apologies if this is obvious, UC is all new to me, however assuming his work allowance won’t apply and I’ll have 55p deducted from my full wage £1697.

Couple £617.60
Carer £198.31
Total £815.91

£1697 x 0.55 = £933.35

My estimate is that you won't actually qualify for Universal Credit unless your DH gets LCWRA.

If he gets the LCWRA, then your total award pre-deduction is £1232.06, so you'd get £298.71.

He might, however, qualify for new style esa? If he has paid sufficient national insurance contributions.

Unfortunately, I think the assessment period (13 weeks) is triggered by the handing in of the fit note, and the LCWRA is only back dated to week 14 of the UC claim (if it takes longer than that to assess his fitness for work).

It may be a number of months until LCWRA may be awarded as Lougie has said. You will need to base your UC entitlement without that element for time being.

Who has led him to expect to be considered LCWRA?

Thank you for this. Do you think if the award is zero they can keep my claim open for 6 months if continued sick lines are provided?

To be honest, nothing. I read through the questions and assumed he would score the points needed to qualify. I’m totally new to all of this but if someone is unfit to work indefinitely would they not qualify?

The assessment period seems to be from when the form was submitted on 24/04. Unsure though but they said no payment will be calculated until 20/06?

2020/21 was the last year he was able to pay full contributions. He has been unwell for a while so has been unable to earn enough to make full contributions. A tax return was submitted yearly and the total bill paid, they only billed £166 NI for the year. As his net profit was under his personal allowance he wasn’t liable to pay tax. I think it was class 4 contributions. When I checked his NI contributors 2021, 2022 and 2023 are still being worked on so contributions not visible on app. He has submitted tax returns up until 04/23 - he has until January 2025 to submit 04/23-04/24.

Have you seen the descriptors here? https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/resources/work-capability-assessment#Appendix1WCALimitedCapabilityforWorkAssessmentDescriptors

It's actually not all that easy to score points. DD1 has significant complex needs, both physically and cognitively, has always been to special school, and scored 0 points on the WCA. They gave her the exceptional circumstances criteria and awarded her LCWRA, but officially she scored nothing.

You just deduct carers allowance , the carers element is not deducted that's added as a monthly element.

Your total would be £668.90 not £298.71 if you get awarded LCWRA as you would then have the work allowance.

Apologies - teaches me not to multitask. Yes, the work allowance would kick in.

It often take much longer than 3 months to be assessed for LCWRA. Mine took over a year and I had to hand in continuous sick notes

I only uploaded the sick note on 24/05 so if I am eligible it will be at least 30/08. I have had a read through the LCWRA guidelines and can see how my husband would meet multiple assessment descriptors. I hope the can keep my claim open until then as I will be awarded £0.00 until the £416 is added? I don’t want to have to reapply as then I’ll have to wait again and the same outcome due to 14 week wait. Feel like I’m missing something. If the award doesn’t kick in until the LCWRA then what happens in the interim?

Yes the claim will be kept open,
Regulation 28(7) of the UC Regs 2013 allows you to keep the claim open until your dh has a WCA even if I you are not entitled to any UC until that point. F5070 for the reference in the DWP guide to the LCWRA element (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1085953/admf5.pdf#page=9)

Thanks for this. Just need to wait and see what the outcome is re LCWRA before I can reduce my hours.

I’m in Scotland so hoping things move quicker here. Sorry to hear you had to wait so long, must have felt like a long year.

Sorry, could you advise what claim would be in the following scenario;

joint claim £617
no kids
no housing benefit
one of the 2 claimants have long term disability £416
I work 1.5/2 days a week earning £154 net a week
my husband’s LCWRA is applied
I do 35 hours caring duty to qualify for carer’s element
£82 a week carer’s allowance as earn under £155 pw threshold
£108 weekly enhanced daily living ADP (pip in England)

The Work Capability Assessment is a functional test of what the Claimant can and cannot do. There's a good guide here:

https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/resources/work-capability-assessment

There are a few conditions, the most common of which is receiving Chemo/Radiotherapy for Cancer, where LCfWRA is automatic. From what you've said he's not terminally ill with a prognosis of less than 12 months and I don't think from what you've said that any of the other routes apply. If you've got the UC 50 then you need to crack on and complete it as its return is what will move you forward.

In the scenario you describe Max UC is

St allowance 617.60
LCfWRA 416.19
Carer 198.31
TOTAL £1232.10

As your monthly earnings of £667.33 are less than the work allowance there's no taper and UC is payable at same as MAx UC.

Would the £82 a week carer allowance not mean my wages are tapered? As wages will be £650 a month net and carers allowance £355 so my income £1005 and this exceeds work allowance so £400 would be tapered 55% and deducted from £1233 Uc ?

Thanks for this resource. He meets 3 of the criteria though from the descriptors? They mention more than just cancer/chemo.

The point was making is that he'll need to complete the whole of the UC50 and 'pass' an assessment with a DWP Healthcare Professional. If he meets the criteria, ie scores sufficient points, then he'll get LCfWRA. My advice on that is to be wary of counting unhatched chickens, the process is flawed and the DWP medics can be totally useless.

If one is claiming and receiving the treatments I mentioned then you only need to complete the first few pages, tick a box, and get a Doctor or Specialist Nurse to countersign it.

@Linkedin721 The Work Allowance and the 55p taper only apply to earnings. State Benefits like Carers Allowance are deducted £/£ from UC so you're no better off in cash terms for claiming it. However it may be worth while as (a) it's paid fortnightly and some people find that helps cashflow/budgeting and (b) you get credited with Class 1 NI Contributions whereas UC only protects the State Pension.

I've lost track of whether I've already posted this but if you've a lot of questions the Help to Claim service are the people to go to.