Universal credit & Self employed income support

[Ivysmum213]

Hey everyone,

Due to covid-19 my self employment took a turn for the worst in March. Being a single mum with a child under 2 I was left no option but to sign up for universal credits. Prior to this I found myself struggling financially and I was considering seeking help through universal credits. I can only work 3 days a week due to child care this averages around 16hrs a week & £715 a month I earn. I have just been accepted for a 80% grant for 3 months of my wages which gives me £576 a month (for 3 months). My only concern is I’ve not been given a clear indication whether my universal credits will go down because of this. I have business debts i’m behind on due to covid-19 and was going to use the grant to bring me back a float. I have left a message on the journal but the response wasn’t very informative.

Is anyone else is a similar boat as I am? I totally understand if my benefits will go down I’m just seeking advice more because if I pay my debts with the grant and my benefits do go down then I’ll be left short and obviously paying my household bills and putting food on the table is more important currently.

If anyone works and earns around the same as me could you give me some insight on what you’re entitled to as I’ve been given zero information. I’ve only visited the job centre once and that visit was very in and out with little information and after that we went into lockdown so I had one phone call accepting my claim.

Hope someone can help

@tickertyboo I've just skim read the report you referenced as the quote you've posted above didn't make sense to me. What they are trying to say I think is that there is little incentive for people to earn more than the work allowance or for a second person in a couple to work.

I sort of understand where they are coming from in that there is only one work allowance per claim whether that claim is single or joint, but it's misleading to say that they "lose more as their earnings rise".

How it works is that you don't have anything deducted when earning within the work allowance and then 63% of anything over that. So you are effectively losing more than when your earnings were below the work allowance (when nothing was being deducted) but you will still always be better off in work (obviously not considering work related costs such as travel which could affect that statement) as the deduction is a percentage.

If you want reliable sources, I recommend CPAG - they literally write the benefits handbook. There's also some helpful stuff on the LITRG website. But this is all adviser and specialist level. Citizens Advice, Entitledto or Turn2Us are the best websites with clear information for people wanting to work out their benefit entitlement and how to claim.

Bloody hell, it took an age to sort the UC, we're likely to receive the grant and then nothing else for quite some time (self employed and need to go into people's homes) so I'll have to start all over again with the UC application

Ah I've just read that it doesn't take as long.