Universal credit

[MuddyBootsRugby]

Not being judgmental here at all just wanting to understand ...My colleague is a single parent, owns her own home, works 4 days a week, earns about £30k Is she be entitled to any benefits?

If so would it be UC or something else?

She may well be if her kids are in childcare yes - it's even possible if they're not/just need wraparound.

If you're trying to help, suggest she tries the online calculators (if she's asked for your input, obviously)

Also if she/her children are disabled there are elements for that. And regardless she'd be entitled to Child Benefit.

I think on a salary of 30k she would get some UC.

Yes probably a bit, not that much unless she has childcare.

Probably yes.

I'm not a single parent, two children, we rent. I work full time. DH is a stay at home dad. I work 50 hours a week & earn just below £36k pa. We get roughly £600 pcm UC benefit.

Entitled to will tell you/her

She's best to put her details into the entitled to benefits calculator. I think (my son is older so not entirely sure) that tax credits 'migrated' into some form of universal credit? Also she may find she can claim the housing element and things like that.

Sorry, just read she owns her own home, so no housing element, but still possible regarding tax credits, the childcare side etc

Why do you get that? Is it because of your DH not working?

Her child is in school.

I'm just not sure what she'd be claiming for? Is it instead of child support?

Thank you 🙏

Does she use wrap around care or holiday clubs?

Sounds like you’re just being nosy.

She would be claiming because £30k isn’t much when you’re paying all the bills yourself so obviously anything you’re entitled to, you would claim.

DH lost his job in 2023 and we were advised to see if we were eligible, turned out yes so we've been getting it since.

Our DC are 6 & 3, one in school, one in nursery. We also get child benefit for each child.

UC isn't affected by child maintenance. Maintenance is a bonus that ideally tips a single parent into not constantly panicking about money.

She might get some UC towards childcare.

Why are you asking, do you want to help your colleague or are you just nosy curious?

It would be UC, and it depends on several factors. These are the main ones to consider:

• immigration status: claimant needs to be British or have permanent residence status (ILR, settled status etc).
• savings/assets: anything under £6k is ignored, anything over £16k would disqualify you for UC.
• the child's age, whether the child gets DLA, and whether the claimant has any childcare costs.

Assuming your colleague is British, has no savings/assets over £6k, and has a child born after April 2017 who is not on DLA, she would get a maximum of £681/month (plus up to 85% of childcare costs covered) before deductions for wages. (If her child was born before April 2017 and/or is on DLA this amount would be higher.) Then it depends on her net wage (ie after tax/NI, any student loan repayments and pension contributions, etc). The first £673 is completely ignored. Estimating a net wage of £1900/month, about £675 would be deducted from her total entitlement. So 681-675 leaves £6/month. (Plus help with childcare costs as I mentioned.) So it's borderline and whether she would actually get UC, and how much exactly, depends on the factors I mentioned.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/on-universal-credit/check-how-much-universal-credit-youll-get/

It will depend on the number and age of kids as well as childcare.

Back of a fag packet for 2 kids says around £250/month plus 85% of any eligible childcare.

On line calculator like Turn2us or a word with CA will give more accurate figure.

Poster with SAH dad in a different place as they pay rent.

Ah yes good point. I had assumed 1 child but of course there might be more.

Why do you need to know?

Definitely not. I’m a single parent, own my own home, earn £20k and get nothing now. I don’t even qualify for the childcare element.

Renters get a good chunk more because they get housing element.

You have to be actually poor to get money.

Have you checked that?

Obviously if you've an immigration status that excludes you from UC, or you have assets over £16k then you won't get it.

However, in a straightforward single parent and homeowner situation a quick check suggests you'd get UC even without childcare.

A combination of large increases in the Work Allowance and the taper rate going down to 55p/£1 of earnings have brought a lot more people into scope.

I don’t think it’s your business. Focus on yourself.

Are you sure you're not entitled to anything? 20k is less than minimum wage if you worked full time - think it's around 23k.

You should definitely go on the Entitledto website to see if that has changed - I would be really surprised if you weren't eligible for any help at all. Please do check asap, you could be missing out.

Just ran some numbers as an example as obviously I don't know your situation but if you have one child aged 3 or so, earn £20k, have around £250000 left of your mortgage to pay off, have less than £5k in savings and spend around £800 a month on childcare then you could be entitled to around £900 a month universal credit.

If all of that stayed the same but you have up to £16k savings you would still be entitled to around £750 a month.

Please do double check as I think you're massively missing out!