Change of employment and universal credit

cazbah1980

Please could someone help.


I work 20 hours a week (am single mum with little girl) and claim tax credits and housing benefit. I have been invited for second interview for another job 30 hours a week. I went on turn2us to work out what my entitled to tax credits and housing benefit would be. It said in my area any changes reported after 1 November 2017 will prompt that claim to be changed over to Universal Credit.


On using the calculation to work out what I would get through tax credits/housing benefit now I would be financially better off per month (I am earning more and claiming less). However I am scared if I get the job and am switched over to UC I will end up worse off (based on UC it is £200 per month less). Is there transitional protection or is that only if I stay in my current job and have no changes in circumstances? I don't want to take this new job and be worse off. If I did get this job I would be starting after 1 November - would the recalculation of my benefits be based on the calculation I have done where it is not a UC claim and I have transitional protection? Or would they recalculate my benefits based on UC calculations and I be worse off?


Thanks for any help.

pmlindyloo

cazbah1980 wrote: »

Please could someone help.


I work 20 hours a week (am single mum with little girl) and claim tax credits and housing benefit. I have been invited for second interview for another job 30 hours a week. I went on turn2us to work out what my entitled to tax credits and housing benefit would be. It said in my area any changes reported after 1 November 2017 will prompt that claim to be changed over to Universal Credit.


On using the calculation to work out what I would get through tax credits/housing benefit now I would be financially better off per month (I am earning more and claiming less). However I am scared if I get the job and am switched over to UC I will end up worse off (based on UC it is £200 per month less). Is there transitional protection or is that only if I stay in my current job and have no changes in circumstances? I don't want to take this new job and be worse off. If I did get this job I would be starting after 1 November - would the recalculation of my benefits be based on the calculation I have done where it is not a UC claim and I have transitional protection? Or would they recalculate my benefits based on UC calculations and I be worse off?


Thanks for any help.

If you have to change to UC because of a change of circumstances then this is known as natural migration and there is no transitional protection for natural migration.

People who are claiming Universal Credit at the moment are people who have had a change which meant they had to make a new benefit claim. These people are called 'natural migrants'. Transitional Protection is not available to them. (Turn2us )

However, I am wondering whether you have put in the correct details for the UC calculation or have failed to take into account the extra money you would be receiving through the extra hours in your possible new job.

If you go to CAB they can do a better off calculation for you.

konark

But you're not making a new claim for a legacy benefit, you're simply modifying an existing claim. People are not 'migrated' to UC simply because their income goes up or down by a few quid.