Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) effect on Universal Credit (UC) claim

Under_the_Radar_2

I guess I am in the same boat as many other self employed people right now and just wondered if anyone could clarify the following me as I can't seem to find a clear answer anywhere. 

I am a self employed taxi driver, have never needed to claim benefits before but have little savings and wife is out of work but not eligible to claim as far as I am aware (she has illnesses but not recognized under any schemes (another issue). So as far as I can tell I am entitled to make a claim immediately to UC, however given the SEISS deal announced at the back end of last week, I should be entitled to a payment that covers my loss of earnings from March, April and May. This makes me think that even if I get onto UC by the time it gets paid I am at most going to get one payment before the SEISS grant appears, and as this will cover the same period of time UC is paying me for, will they either take money off the SEISS grant, or will UC see it as an overpayment and want money back? 

In short, whilst I am out of pocket,  if I can hold on until June, will I be any financially better off by submitting a claim to UC this week, or will it all balance out in the long term? I don't really want to clog up the system making a claim if there is no benefit except immediate cashflow. 

The quote from the government website states

"The Self-employment Income Support Scheme will be treated as earnings in Universal Credit. Your Universal Credit payment will adjust in response to changes in your earnings.
If you need financial help whilst waiting for SEISS, check your eligibility for Universal Credit "

Which to me is very much open to interpretation.

Hope someone can clear this up for me, thanks. 

Jeremy535897

UC for self employed looks at income month by month, so the month in which you get your grant, your UC will probably be nil. They don't adjust previous months. Nor does a UC claim reduce the SEISS grant.

calcotti

The grant will (I think) be treated as earnings and a deduction of 63% of the grant made from the UC amount. You may find that in the months you receive a grant payment your UC entitlement is nil (obviously it depends on the numbers). If this happens your UC claim may be closed. If this happens, each time it happens you can log in to your journal and make a rapid reclaim. 

EDIT: When I posted this I was thinking the grant would be paid in three monthly instalments. Re reading the guidance it appears that the grant will be single payment to cover a three month period. This means that the grant will be taken into account in that one month. If the grant is large then there amy be what are called 'surplus earnings' which will then affect the next month too (I am not going to try and explain these rules because they are complex). Very important that anyone who has their claim closed in these circumstances dies do the rapid reclaim.

Under_the_Radar_2

Thanks for the replies, so the consensus is apply for both and assuming I am eligible, I will be better off than just waiting for the SEISS to come into effect?

olwyn_perkin

My husband is a self employed taxi driver and obviously not working. My query is can he apply for Universal Credit orJob Seekers. I am a nurse who has taken my NHS pension and returned to work less hours 18 months ago. Is my pension lump sum seen as savings? Would this affect my husbands eligibility? 

gunner786

Im in the same situation. This clarifies it. Thank you

calcotti

olwyn_perkin said:

My husband is a self employed taxi driver and obviously not working. My query is can he apply for Universal Credit orJob Seekers. I am a nurse who has taken my NHS pension and returned to work less hours 18 months ago. Is my pension lump sum seen as savings? Would this affect my husbands eligibility? 

Joint savings taken into account and if over £16,000 husband cannot claim UC. Your pension lump sum is savings. Because he is self employed he cannot claim JSA.

derek555

hi.

first time on here HELP.

I'm looking for some advice as well and looks like I'm in a similar position,

I'm self employed and as far as I'm aware will be entitled to the 80% SEISS in June,

my question is simple but to date cannot get any answers from HMRC or DWP etc,

if I claim a benefit i,e JSA or UC, will claiming a benefit affect my 80% self employed grant in June?

i'm concerned that if i do claim anything it will make my 80% SEISS void but in the other hand money is extremely hard at the moment and now considering a bank loan instead of claiming a benifit,

MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE

calcotti

As already explained in this thread (and numerous others) claiming a welfare benefit will not affect the grant but the grant will affect means tested benefits.

shawi2

Hi, I asked about this via my U/C journal notes. They advised the following
"The grant will be treated as income for that months".  From this, I assume my U/C payment on 1st June will be zero
"This grant could also create surplus earnings going forward. It all depends on individual circumstance, so I can't actually say yes or no I'm afraid.
I've been told you'll receive a journal message about this at some point, so keep an eye out for it".  So it seems that even their service administrators aren't sure about this

Under_the_Radar_2

It all depends on personal circumstance, people will get different amounts on UC, some people will have an allowance before income starts reducing benefit etc. basically if you get £2,500 over the amount that would reduce your UC payment to nil, it will be seen as surplus earnings so may affect future payments until you get back under that threshold.

You can't really do too much about it, putting off claiming the seiss grant till your next uc period ends may help some as at least you will get one more payment guaranteed, but other than that just make sure to put any outgoings that would normally count as losses on your self assessment in your month to month UC income, as this will help bring you back into the bracket of getting UC after the SEISS grant has been received.