Becoming an appointee for universal credit

[PickAChew]

DS1 is 18 now. He gets the full whack of PIP, both strands, for which I am his appointee, and I've been gathering everything to make a claim for UC on his behalf. I started a claim online but have stalled until I can get this sorted. I am being sent round in circles by anyone I contact in an attempt to find out how to do this.

Has anyone done this recently? Am I just going to have to start his claim again, over the phone? (Not easy, right now, as I have covid and I'm losing my voice!)

Replying to myself because this i the first comprehensive guide I've found in several searches
contact.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/universal_credit_young_person.pdf

Thank you, that's really helpful!

contact.org.uk/about-contact/news-and-views/new-rules-seek-to-stop-disabled-students-from-claiming-universal-credit/

I've read about this new rule change. Does this mean a young person who gets PIP, can't claim universal credit, if they are in education?

Hope you feel better soon Pick.

Reading that guide that I found, it definitely makes it more complicated.

Ds1 is currently neet, anyhow. He got a placement but between his mental health and the pandemic, it simply wasn't going to happen.

Thank you from me too. I feel utterly lost. We are still in education but not full time.

Well, thankfully, it turned out that the disability advisors at our jobcentre are fabulous and we got it sorted pretty quickly, once I'd finished the forms.

Really @PickAChew I might just call and see if they can set me straight. I think I’m just feeling overwhelmed by everything at the moment. Ds has developed horrible ocd on top of everything else and every day is hard.

I finished off the form @5zeds and then the advisors contacted me about verifying his identity. I'd already had them recommended to me by a guy from a local organisation that caters for neets and offers links to programs aimed at young people with asd and learning difficulties (he's also linked us to a couple of work skills programs that Ds1 is very up for. We've been to a couple of open days and he attended an assessment day, last week, which was his first time out of the house without me since the start of the pandemic. I think this one might be too intensive for him, just yet, but love that he's open to it. )

I still get muddled with the terminology. I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s like I’ve hit a wall or something.

The advisor transferred all the sointee information over from the arrangement we already had for Pip, so that turned out to be quite easy.

The UC firm itself isn't too difficult, though you have to fill a whole section in because you can't go back to it part way so I almost got tripped up on limited capability for work because I wanted to go away and compose my thoughts.

It might be worth you phoning your jcp for an appointment with a disability advisor, anyhow, if your ds is in education, though. Ds2 is about to go into 6th for for a 3 year course, so I'll have that minefield to wade through for him, at some point. (current focus for him is bloody transport, though!)

i think I will talk to someone if they are available. I don’t really understand what we could be eligible for. Ds is on such limited hours (and not terribly effective) that he might be better off just paying for a tutor/support workers. I just don’t know. I wish someone would just clearly explain it all. He does a fair few activities that he loves but I pay for all of those.