Contributions based JSA and Universal Credit

Stoodles

My husband is going to be made redundant. He will be 64 when it happens, so we are trying to plan for the possibility he won't easily find another job.



My only income is CB ESA (Support Group), and PIP, Enhanced for both sections.


I put our details into Entitled To, and it says if he was claiming JSA now he'd get £196 per week, but by the time he claims, under UC he will only get £55, most of that being Council Tax Support.


Will it really make that much difference?



The figure is based on us having savings of £13,500. Would it help if we paid off the remains of the mortgage and reduced our savings?

poppy12345

Stoodles wrote: »

My husband is going to be made redundant. He will be 64 when it happens, so we are trying to plan for the possibility he won't easily find another job.



My only income is CB ESA (Support Group), and PIP, Enhanced for both sections.


I put our details into Entitled To, and it says if he was claiming JSA now he'd get £196 per week, but by the time he claims, under UC he will only get £55, most of that being Council Tax Support.


Will it really make that much difference?



The figure is based on us having savings of £13,500. Would it help if we paid off the remains of the mortgage and reduced our savings?

CB JSA is not £196 per week, it's £73.10 per week, it's also not means tested. UC is means tested and savings/capital will affect this.

poppy12345

Stoodles wrote: »

The figure is based on us having savings of £13,500. Would it help if we paid off the remains of the mortgage and reduced our savings?

This can be seen as deprivation of capital in order to claim a means tested benefit.

Stoodles

Entitled to says, under the current system "Your entitlement is made up of £83.10 in income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and £73.10 in contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance."


I think what I'm asking is

1. Does CB JSA vanish when UC kicks in?

2 Does UC count ESA and /or PIP as household income?
3a How are savings calculated for over 60s, as Entitled to only gives details for those below that age?

3b Does the fact that I am under 60 make a difference?

4 Will our savings actually be counted as £13k, if part of that is redundancy pay?


The difference between the current and future systems seem so huge I feel (hope) there must be something wrong somewhere. It's a drop of over £600 a month?

pmlindyloo

In theory your OH can apply for contribution based JSA and you continue with your contribution based ESA claim.

Both of these do not come under Universal Credit and since you do not have any rent to pay then you do not have to claim Universal Credit.

Contribution based JSA only lasts 6 months so after that time you would have to put in a claim (I believe) for Universal Credit. There is some discussion about this as to whether he could be added to your ESA claim which would have an income based ESA 'top up' after the 6 months.

There is also the possibility that he could claim Carer's Allowance for you instead of claiming contribution based JSA (about a £10 a week difference) which would alleviate the need for job seeking.

Or you could both claim Universal Credit with him getting the carer's element. Your contribution based ESA would remain outside of UC.

What say others?

When your husband knows when he is being made redundant then I suggest you go to CAB and ask for a 'better off calculation' for the different options.

Stoodles

So CB JSA still exists, even in a UC area? It isn't showing in the Entitled to results.


I don't think he wants to alleviate the need for job seeking. He was viewing retirement with some trepidation,and had even talked about going on working past the official age. He just doubts that anyone will want to start afresh with a 64 year old with increasing numbers of health problems.



I don't think I'm ill enough for him to claim Carer's Allowance (though I also didn't think I was ill enough to get PIP), and it doesn't really fit with him being able to leave me to work full time until now. There have been occasions when he had to come home from work, but not many and his employers were generous and flexible about them.


The redundancy will be the middle of next year - how soon is it worth contacting CAB?

Tomsdottir

If you claimed your ESA before the area in which you are living became a UC full service area, you can ask for a "supersession" of this award, so that income related ESA is paid for both of you. As pml has highlighted, if your partner meets the qualifying conditions for carer's allowance (search for carer's allowance" on gov.uk), he could claim this instead of JSA. This would increase the maximum amount of income related ESA you can get. Care can include supervision as well as more active types of support. Maybe have a look at the Carers UK website for more information about this? The fact that someone hasn't been receiving supervision (for example, because of falls) doesn't mean they don't need it.

For means tested benefits like income based ESA, you are treated as though you get £1 a week for every £250 (or part thereof) from savings above £6k. (That's the rate until you reach pension credit age, and can claim pension credit - at which point the threshold at which this type of income starts is £10,000 and the rate is £1 a week for every £500 above the limit. To find out when you both reach pension credit age, google pension credit age on gov.uk.)

If you had capital of £13,500, this means that you are treated as though you got £30 a week from £13,500. If you spend money in order to qualify for benefit, you are treated as though you still had that money (even if that wasn't the main or only reason you spent the money in the way that you did) and your benefit is still reduced accordingly.

Statutory redundancy pay is treated as capital. Contractual redundancy pay is usually also treated as capital. (There are a couple of special rules covering people who carry on doing part time work and/or haven't received all their pay in lieu of notice when they claim benefit.)

So if you followed this course of action (claiming ESA as a couple, husband claiming carer's allowance) your benefit would be made up of your PIP, his carer's allowance of £64.60 a week and ESA of £117.45 (=contributory ESA £110.75 + income related ESA £6.70 pw).

If you claimed UC (and if you claimed your contributory ESA after the area you live in became full service and it has remained in payment since, you usually can't claim income related ESA: it's replaced by UC for you). Your benefits under UC (based on a quick calculation) come to UC of £21.53 pw, +cont ESA of £110.75 pw, his carer's allowance of £64.60 a week + your PIP. (That's taking into account income from savings as before.)

In financial terms only, you might be better off by just under £15 a week on UC. HOWEVER:

...,in addition to looking at the financial aspects of claiming UC, you also have to consider other very significant factors such as having to maintain your claim online, the frequency with which the DWP make mistakes (such as asking people incorrectly to go for another work capability assessment when they don't need to) and the general hassle often associated with this benefit. Once you've "caught" UC, you won't be able to go back and reclaim the benefits it has replaced.

If he doesn't claim carer's allowance, income from either benefit will be about £30 a week less, I reckon.

If he claims contributory JSA (yes, this still exists in full service areas) this would last for 6 months only and during that period would probably mean there was no entitlement to income related ESA. He would have to be very clear that he is only claiming contributory JSA, in order to prevent the DWP ending your income related ESA claim and treating this as a couple claim for income based JSA - which of course isn't payable in a full service area. Again, you could ask the CAB to show you what benefit entitlement would be for the first 6 months and thereafter. Without knowing your council tax details it's not going to be possible to say whether you are better off on cont JSA + cont ESA vs the other scenarios.

There's nothing to prevent him from looking for work as the partner of someone on ESA - he just isn't subject to the risk of sanctions which arises with JSA or UC. He would need advice on national insurance credits towards his state pension etc in that scenario He may already have all the credits he needs - he looks to be getting close to pension credit age - 2020 perhaps? (The pension credit age checker will tell you.)

A CAB or similar, as has been suggested, can do a full "what if" calculation. Nothing to prevent you going to them asap, to give you more time to consider your many options.

xylophone

Does your husband expect to receive a pension from his employer's scheme?

Does he have any other pension provision? Has he checked for any forgotten pensions?

For planning purposes, has he obtained a state pension statement? Have you?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension