Mooloo’s Managing it in 2018

beanielou

UC is dire.
Minimum 5 week wait though I think she can apply for some sort of advance but it has to be paid back.

Savvy_sewing

beanielou wrote: »

UC is dire.
Minimum 5 week wait though I think she can apply for some sort of advance but it has to be paid back.

Here we go again!
But I am determined that I am not going to let this stress me out.
I will offer what advice I can and deal with it if I have too.
I have told her to also see if her doctor could help her appeal but still claim immediately. I told her to find out if there is a food bank, who can authorise it's use, to cancel her direct debit so nobody can over draw her account. To write to anyone she owes money to etc and tell them of her situation. Not to bury her head in the sand.
I told her I will ring her on Wednesday to see what she has managed to find out.
I am trying to make her be proactive.

I have spent this evening typing up the notes I wrote on holiday and adding to them. I am once again going to try to write a book. I have managed 9 pages. Not a lot to show for several hours work.
I am sure that I will have to rewrite a lot of it but I had to start somewhere.
Maybe revisiting my memory will be a good way of putting issues to bed once and for all.
My first writing away was less detailed and spawned up until 2004. It was 4 pages. But then as I started to re read it, I automatically
started to add more details and so I am currently back in 1988.
My childhood is only in the forward piece at the moment. I have started more in 1978 when I returned from Cyprus aged 16 1/2.
I may have enough content there to write a few pages eventually. But I don't know yet.
So don't let me get away with starting this and giving up on it. For 7 years now I keep shelving the idea, and every year someone I meet tells me I should write a book. Last week again I was told. So I can take a hint, it's time to do it.
So it's way past bedtime for me.
Night

Savvy_sewing

Time for work.
Today I am going out to visit two people in their homes for fittings. So I will have a busy day organising my work load around the visits.
I am hoping that I will be able to work on building such a service, but will probably have to do a few surveys to see if I have a target market and can also cost it reasonably.

annandale

Get advice on the universal credit. You can apply for a 100 per cent advance but she will need to phone the service centre to do this. It is not automatic.

I don!!!8217;t know what rate she was on for esa prior to going on uc but the basic rate for a single person is 317 a month.

She will also need to find out what category of uc she will be placed in. If it!!!8217;s in the all work group she!!!8217;ll have to do a 35 hour a week job search. If not it will be less but that might mean another work capability assessment to find out what category she goes in.

On uc you also have to have an online account where you show you are applying for jobs and if she also struggles with this someone else can help her do a job search.

But the most important thing about uc is that she doesn!!!8217;t miss appointments with her work coach. If you do it could lead to a possible sanction and a sanction is a cut of 10.40 a day in benefit.

Also she needs to find out if she can get her rent paid direct to her landlord if she!!!8217;s claiming rent element. In Scotland you can but not sure about England. The money is often paid in one lump sum and you then pay your landlord direct.

If she thinks she!!!8217;s been put off esa wrongly I believe she will need to ask for a mandatory reconsideration.

She will also have to tell the dwp if she!!!8217;s planning on starting a business but on uc you get a year to make 35 x nmw and then you get no more support unless you can show you aren!!!8217;t gainfully self employed.

She will also have an online journal and this is where she will communicate with her work coach out with appointments. Everything is done online apart from the face to face meetings with the work coach

annandale

Also. If she is getting fit notes from her GP just now she will have to keep posting them into the dwp however keep copies as they do go astray. The advance can go into your bank same day. It took 3-5 days with mine but a lot of people get it same day. She will have to call the service centre and ask for it.

annandale

She also has to make the original application for uc online. And she will be asked to take identification with her to her first job centre appointment. I had to take my passport and more than one household bill.

annandale

This might be of use. As long as her circumstances haven't changed she could be entitled to transitional protection so that the amount of money she is getting when she changes over to UC isn't affected.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/universal-credit-for-disabled-people

Savvy_sewing

annandale wrote: »

This might be of use. As long as her circumstances haven't changed she could be entitled to transitional protection so that the amount of money she is getting when she changes over to UC isn't affected.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/universal-credit-for-disabled-people

Thank you.
I wish she wasn't so far away!
I am so grateful for the advice. I will try and get through to her. X

Eager_Elephant

Transitional protection is only for people who transition to UC from ESA and not for people who are found fit to work.

Annandale is correct in a lot of what they say - she needs to apply online as soon as she can and once she has attended her first interview to provide ID etc then she can ask for an advance. The amount of £317pm is only for over 25's, I think DD is under this.

Housing Costs can be paid direct to landlord and sometimes the landlord will request this or DD can do this herself by putting a note on her journal explaining why.

Will DD's GP give her a sick note? If he won't she can still advise them that she has a disability and her work search requirements can be changed so she doesnt have to do 35 hours per week.


I like UC for people because most of it is managed through the journal and you can message your work coach without having to go in and also when they need you to do something they add it to the Journal and the To Do List and send you a text so you log in and do what they want you to do and then it gets ticked off the list - definitely much more user friendly and more transparent than JSA.


Message me if she needs further help

annandale

Also just to say, just going from what I know of being on UC (I am on it myself), things can vary depending on the work coach. I work part time but I am off work ill just now and it took a month for my work coach to switch my job seeking requirements off. When I made my claim I was in a live service area which meant I did not have a journal and I still do not even though I have been on UC since last January. I will be switching over next week. My area is full service but I am still technically a live claimant (which meant no journal)

The service centre told me today that when I change to full service it will automatically flag that I am off ill and a work capability assessment will be put into place, this hasnt happened for me yet even though I have been unwell since April because I am still technically a live claimant but from my understanding if your daughter is immediately a full service claimant as soon as she sends a fit note in it should trigger her being sent for a WCA. (if this isn't the case, its what I was told today, as I said sometimes depending on who you speak to you can get different information)

That will determine the category she goes into. I was told a couple of months ago that there is a backlog for that so she might be waiting a couple of months. If she is placed into the lcwa group she wont get any extra money and if she is placed into the lwcra group she will.

The issue is sometimes and this has been very much my experience that you can get conflicting information from different people in the service centre. Tell her always to keep a copy of her fit note, the processing centre have lost my last 3 and I have always taken photocopies.

The main thing for me as I said before is always make sure she gets to appointments for her work coach and if for any reason she cant make it, phone them and ask to rearrange.

I was 12 mins late for an appointment a few months ago, issues beyond my control and I had to wait 10 weeks to find out whether I was going to be sanctioned or not. Getting to her appointments is the main thing. On time, because they refer you to a decision maker even if you are only a few mins late.

If she has trouble using a pc and getting her work search done (depending on what category she is placed into), she can ask for someone to help her with this. I speak to someone who works for a local MSP (Scottish MP) and he told me that a lot of people with learning disabilities and other issues are having major issues with UC because they aren't pc literate, but you are allowed to get people to help you with your job search if you are struggling)

Also (and they do not always advertise this). You can also bring someone with you to appointments, you can also ask for a change of work coach (and I have had to), if they aren't supportive.

Ive had a few issues on UC, but the main thing is keeping to appointments and if you are ill or for whatever reason can't make an appointment, let them know in advance, it saves any headache later

Also, I believe the advance is now repayable over 12 months (for me it was 6), there is lots of information out there, there are a few facebook groups that also give advice and support (some are way better than others), but if you have someone on here with a good working knowledge of UC, use the help.

One thing that I do find frustrating just on a personal level is that you never know when your next appointment is until you've had your last one, its not on a set day every week or fortnight, so its a matter of putting your appointments in a diary. If you forget you can phone the service centre and they'll remind you when your next appointment is, plus her work coach should also give her her direct number.

Also, when I first claimed, they gave me weekly apppointments for 8 weeks and then dropped it to every two weeks, but they can have people in more often if they think they need more support (or less, some people are on light touch where they have telephone appointments with their work coach every few weeks, but that's often for people who work and claim UC as well).

Hope things work out ok.