Am I entitled to universal credit?

[Killerqueenie]

Looking for advice on finances. I work for NHS just on the bank at the moment as I have 2 young children. I am married and my husband works full time. Am I able to claim universal credit? I don't work much hours at the moment as getting childcare is difficult and my husband works long hours. I had a look at the website to apply but got stuck when it asks for salary/hours, as bank hours are not set hours and I don't do a specific amount each week. Is there somewhere you can go where someone helps you to work out what you're entitled to? I'm totally lost with it all. I'm in Scotland if that makes a difference

It's not you that would or wouldn't be entitled, it's your household. If you have a husband who works full time, his details and income need to be included in the application for UC.

You can try going to entitled to website. Its only an estimate so not critical if the hours or pay is slightly out. You need your income, husbands income and childcare costs, also whether you rent or own your home.

Call Help to Claim and they will go through your circumstances and give you an estimate of what you might get.

An average will do to get a roughcut of what you might and for any figures they need when you apply. Once a claim is up and running they use the figures reported to HMRC by your employer when they run payroll.

As others have pointed out if you're part of a couple it has to be a joint claim.

@Killerqueenie just re read and spotted that you're in Scotland. Help to Claim is exactly what you need but the Scottish service is on a different phone number:

https://www.cas.org.uk/helptoclaim

Thanks all. I just got confused as some months I work 2 or 3 shifts, then I can go another month without doing any shifts at all, so it's hard to calculate what my income is. I'll look into what was suggested, though. Many thanks.

@Killerqueenie are you getting Child/Working Tax Credit?

If you do bank work just say it's zero hrs when you make the claim. The info on income used to decide each month's payment will come via the payroll. It will need to be a joint claim though. If your youngest child is over 3 then your initial commitments will be based around working 30 hrs pw and you will need to attend weekly appointments. What happens after that will depend on your H/H income after your the first Assessment Period (AP) has ended.

It all depends on individual circumstances. They get your income info directly from HMRC and so your UC payment would vary each month if you earn more/less. As mentioned, they take both yours and your partners incomes into account. You will be allocated elements based on your circumstances. The basic ones are couple element, children and housing then there are additional elements that can be added for childcare, carers and disabilities etc. You get paid an element for all children born before April 2017 but only 2 if they were born after that. You'll only get housing element if you rent. They add all the elements together to get your total award amount. They will then apply what is known as a work allowance. This is an amount which is determined by whether you receive housing element or not. If you don't receive it your work allowance will be £673 and if you do receive it your work allowance will be £404. The work allowance is basically how much of your combined income is disregarded before deductions will be taken from your UC award for income. Deductions are made at a rate of 55p in every pound of earned income. For example, if your combined income was £2500 and you didn't receive housing element then you do £2500, deduct £673 from that figure which is £1827 then multiply that by 0.55. This gives a figure of £1004. If your initial total UC award amount was more than £1004 then you would be paid the difference. If it was less then you wouldn't receive anything that month.

It sounds confusing but it really isn't once you get the hang of it. Oh and if you're in Scotland then you'll also be entitled to Scottish Child Payment (around £26 a week) for each child if you get any payment of UC even if its only a few pounds so that's worthwhile applying for. It's totally separate from UC and doesn't affect it in any way.

I would be happy to calculate your UC amount for you if you wanted to provide the details for income, children, housing etc.

Oh and you also won't be expected to work 30 hours. There is an amount that as a couple you need to earn over and you are already meeting that by your partner working full time.

If it helps, these are the amounts for a basic award of a couple who are aged over 25 with 2 children born after April 2017 and no rent.

Couple element - £617.60
Children - £575.84 (£287.92 each)
Total - £1193.44

Your combined income would need to be just under £2850 before the wage deductions would "zero" your UC award for that month (£2850 minus £673 = £2177 then multiplied by 0.55 is £1197). Obviously it would be different if you have rent or are under 25 or your children were born before April 2017.