UC partner student advice on leaving work

Artybhoy

Hi there,

My partner and myself claim uc she is now a full time student and I work 24 hrs per week.
I am looking to find out if I left my job would we be sanctioned from uc looking to leave to become full time carer for our 5 month old and out 1 and half year old while she is full time student as she is in her Her honours year of a law degree and I work minimum wage unskilled so her chances of higher employment are of most importance to us as a family and I'd like to care for the kids to allow her time to study.

Anyone any knowledge of how this works in their eyes will they sanction me for leaving even although I am going to be full time carer?

calcotti

Who is down as the responsible carer at the moment?

Artybhoy

My partner as I am working and she was unemployed but we want to change that now she's full time student

calcotti

I think it would be sensible to ask your work coach if they will allow you to become the responsible carer while your wife studies. I don’t know if they will or not.
If you give up work without consent you are likely to be sanctioned for 13 weeks. You will also, presumably, be required to look for work and if you don’t will get further sanctions.
There are others who post on this forum who may have more direct knowledge of this.

Artybhoy

Yeah I thought that would be the case I don't see why it should be a problem as I'm leaving to be carer not just leaving for the sake of it and her degree will lead to much better higher paid job which will lead to us leaving uc anyway. I'll message and find out tomorrow

NedS

Definitely have a chat with your work coach about the change in circumstances, but I'm pretty sure you will be fine.

If you declare a change of circumstances to say you are the main carer for a child under the age of 1, you will move into the No Work Related Requirements group. At that point there is no requirement on you to work or look for work, so it would be completely inappropriate to refer to a decision maker if you were then to give up work.

More key to the discussion is what would then happen to your partner in terms of having to look for work as they are now no longer the primary carer of the children. I'd have to check the guidance, but assuming they are in full time advanced education (and in receipt of student loan/grant?) then there would be no work related requirements for them either so neither of you would be expected to attend regular appointments or look for work.

huckster

As pointed out, if you became primary carer for the children, you would then be in no work related requirements. Therefore no sanction should be applied, but it may be referred to a Decision Maker, as you are still giving up work, expecting an increase in benefits. Not sure your partner being a well paid Lawyer in the future is relevant now.

Agree that doing this may have consequences for your partner. If she has taken out student finance/grants, was any of this related to her being the carer of Children ? As your partner had care of children and was in full time advanced education, UC should have taken student finance/grants into account ? Has this all be disclosed and there is a deduction for student loans ?

What about Childcare options ?

https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

tomtom256

The argument would be though is what has changed?

You where working and your partner is/was a full time student who also provided full time care to your children, but now you want to give up work to care for them.

Has her actual study hours increased or is it just because it is her final year and she needs more time?

This is something the DM will want to know.

calcotti

NedS wrote: »

More key to the discussion is what would then happen to your partner in terms of having to look for work as they are now no longer the primary carer of the children. I'd have to check the guidance, but assuming they are in full time advanced education (and in receipt of student loan/grant?) then there would be no work related requirements for them either so neither of you would be expected to attend regular appointments or look for work.

Just found this which says that a full time student cannot have work related conditionality applied to them if they have student income taken into account within the UC award calculation. Otherwise labour market conditionality applies.
https://universalcreditinfo.net/myths/i-wont-have-work-related-requirements-placed-on-me-if-im-a-student

See ADM https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/728459/admj2.pdf

J2071 A person who is receiving education but is entitled to UC who
1 UC Regs, reg 89(1)(e)(i)
1. is in receipt of student income in respect of the course they are undertaking and
2. has student income taken into account in the calculation of their award of UC
cannot have work-related requirements placed on them.
1 UC Regs, reg 89(1)(e)(ii)

J2072 The circumstances in J2070 – 71 will not apply and a person will not be treated as having student income where:
1. that income is a postgraduate master’s degree loan and
2. the course which the loan in (a) is paid for is not a full-time course
This means that from September 2016, part-time postgraduate students can have appropriate work-related requirements imposed upon them, dependant on the work-related group they are placed in.

Still don’t know if it will be considered reasonable for non student partner to ask to be treated as the responsible carer for children.

OP, would be very helpful if you update us when you resolve this matter.

ArcticRoll

It's not Universal Credit's purview to determine who is registered as the primary carer. As advised earlier, if you're looking after someone whose under the age of 1 you're in the 'No work related requirements' group, and indeed will technically not be mandated to search for work until the youngest turns three so long as you are still registered as the primary carer. Therefore no decision maker will sanction someone who is not required to be in work, for not being in work.

The fact your partner is a full time student is irrelevant, that has been allowed under the terms of UC. They can no more sanction you for giving up work to become the primary carer for your children than they can sanction you for giving up work to become a full-time carer for one of your parents.

Only issue I could see is if you did this then had change of heart and decided it'd be best for your partner to be registered primary carer, then it probably would go to a decision maker for sanctionable action as it would look as if you only made the change temporarily to leave work if you change your mind within the first 9 months. So make sure it is a change you want to make

tomtom256

ArcticRoll wrote: »

It's not Universal Credit's purview to determine who is registered as the primary carer. As advised earlier, if you're looking after someone whose under the age of 1 you're in the 'No work related requirements' group, and indeed will technically not be mandated to search for work until the youngest turns three so long as you are still registered as the primary carer. Therefore no decision maker will sanction someone who is not required to be in work, for not being in work.

The fact your partner is a full time student is irrelevant, that has been allowed under the terms of UC. They can no more sanction you for giving up work to become the primary carer for your children than they can sanction you for giving up work to become a full-time carer for one of your parents.

Only issue I could see is if you did this then had change of heart and decided it'd be best for your partner to be registered primary carer, then it probably would go to a decision maker for sanctionable action as it would look as if you only made the change temporarily to leave work if you change your mind within the first 9 months. So make sure it is a change you want to make

I think you have missed the point, they will be changing the primary carer in order for him to give up work, which they could be sanctioned for, as it would fall under LV/giving up work, when in fact, nothing has changed in their circumstances other than 1 half of the couple wants to give up work to become the primary carer, as such it could be seen that they are giving up work to stay on/increase their means tested benefit.