Claiming benefits when between jobs and Universal Credit question

tomhann187_2

A relative newbie here so please be gentle! Currently, we claim a small amount of Child Tax Credits. My husband doesn't work (stay at home Dad) and I work full time. My contract expires on the 24th May. I've secured a new job in a new city but it doesn't start until the end of June. This means that we will have 4-5 weeks of no income. My first question is whether we can claim benefits for this short period to help with finances?

Secondly, the area we will be moving to for my new job is starting to roll out Universal Credit in some circumstances. From what I understand, if we can claim in this unemployed period, we would need to apply for Universal Credit (because our income will be under a certain amount a month). Once I begin earning again, we would need to alter our circumstances in our claim and we'd be eligible for Child Tax Credits and possibly Working Tax Credits. What would happen with regards to the UC in this situation? Would we stop claiming this and go back to the 'old' system of applying, or would we continue with a UC claim despite then being over the threshold outlined in the eligibility criteria?

I hope my questions make sense!

Thanks in advance for any replies

Mersey_2

In Universal Credit areas, there's no such thing as WTC ie any payments would be paid under UC.


Be aware of the 7 day waiting period before benefits and also that UC takes 5 weeks to be paid.

TELLIT01

Universal Credits are paid monthly in arrears which is why, as Mersey intimates, it can take up to 5 weeks to be paid.

shegirl

As Mersey has said you'd have to continue with a UC claim.

You could continue getting your child tax credits until you have to claim UC though,unless you only get childcare assistance?