Forced onto universal credit

Andypandyuk

Hi,
I was basically tricked into claiming UC because my claim to WTC was closed and i was told i would now have to claim UC, i wrongly assumed after jumping through all the hoops that UC paid some sort of WTC when actually they pay nothing, so my wife gets DLA High Care, Low Mobility and i got carer allowance and income support, altogether including housing benefit our income was 1760.30 per month, under UC this has dropped to 1444.81 giving us a huge loss of 315.49, my question is does this seam correct or are we missing out on something? Despite my wife getting a life time award for DLA, under UC she is having to provide a fit not to stop UC forcing her to look for work. I am self employed with a new business but i am a full time carer, so my carer allowance has been taken by UC and replaced by carer premium of 160.20, then we just get the standard couple allowance of 498.89, our rent is 322.73 but UC will only pay 316.64 of it claiming there is 53 weeks this year and they will only pay for 52! There also taking 286.65 carer allowance off me when in the period of payment i have only received 264.60. I would appreciate any advice anyone can give us please.

calcotti

Has your wife started a Work Capability Assessment? She will have to provide Fit Notes unless UC decided she has Limited Capability for Work. This process is the same as it would have been if she had previously claimed ESA.

Because she is now on a UC claim she will get NI credits towards her state pension which she will not have been before if her only income was the PIP.

If she is found to have Limited Capability for Work and Work Related Activity you will get an extra £336/month in UC from the fourth month after Fit Notes were first provided.

The Carer’s Allowance you receive is paid every 4 weeks. UC is paid monthly and the CA is converted into a monthly amount when working out your entitlement. There will be one month in the year when you get 2 CA payments but the UC deduction will be unchanged. The deduction of CA but inclusion of a carer element works in exactly the same way as it would have done on Income Support.

[Deleted User]

If your WTC claim was closed for some reason it's right that you couldn't reclaim it. It doesn't exist for new claims which it would have been.

Why was your claim closed?

NedS

Under UC your wife will either be required to look for work, or to provide a fit note if she is unable to look for work. DLA/PIP do not relate to fitness for work and are not relevant to a claim for UC. If she were previously claiming ESA and were found unfit for work, then this decision would be carried across onto your UC claim.
Carers allowance will be deducted from your UC award - it's classified as unearned income and is deducted pound for pound (this was the same on your Income Support). UC is a monthly benefit, and your Carers Allowance is paid 4-weekly (£264.60), so is converted from this 4-weekly value to the monthly equivalent for the purposed of the UC deduction. Once per year you will actually receive 2 lots of carers allowance in your Universal Credit month, but you will not be penalised for this as it has already been averaged over the year, so that month you will be substantially better off having received 2 payments.
You receive the carers premium of £160.20 as you are a carer - you would have received a similar amount (premium) on your Income Support award, albeit paid fortnightly.
DLA/PIP is paid independently of UC and does not affect the amount of UC you receive.