Minimum income floor questions

Pinkbunny2000

How long can a family go these days since all the covid19 changes having less than the MIF coming in and still get full UC?

For example a family of two adults and kids with only about £640 month earned income so as to be above the level that the benefit cap doesn’t apply.

will they get pressured to earn more as they would have been before covid19?

or have things changed so much now that the old rules don’t apply?

poppy12345

It doesn't apply at the moment. I believe it's back on from November. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/on-universal-credit/how-the-minimum-income-floor-works-if-youre-self-employed/

Caz3121

Pinkbunny2000 said:

How long can a family go these days since all the covid19 changes having less than the MIF coming in and still get full UC?

"The Minimum Income Floor has been temporarily relaxed during the coronavirus outbreak. This change applies to all Universal Credit claimants and will last for the duration of the outbreak."
how long that will be will be anyone's guess....
https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/new-to-universal-credit/self-employment/

calcotti

Caz3121 said:

Pinkbunny2000 said:

How long can a family go these days since all the covid19 changes having less than the MIF coming in and still get full UC?

"The Minimum Income Floor has been temporarily relaxed during the coronavirus outbreak. This change applies to all Universal Credit claimants and will last for the duration of the outbreak."
how long that will be will be anyone's guess....
https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/new-to-universal-credit/self-employment/

The relevant regulation (The Social Security (Coronavirus) ( Further Measures) Regulations 2020 only gives the SoS the discretionary power to waive the MIF until 13th November 2020.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/371/regulation/2 See regulation 2 and 10.
Further regulations can, of course, be passed should the government choose to do so. However the government are clearly intent on returning the benefits system to ‘normal’ as soon as possible.

[Deleted User]

calcotti said:

  However the government are clearly intent on returning the benefits system to ‘normal’ as soon as possible.

This is another matter, but Calcotti, do you think that Local Housing Allowance rates will also be reduced back to their previous levels after November?

poppy12345

Poster_586329 said:

calcotti said:

  However the government are clearly intent on returning the benefits system to ‘normal’ as soon as possible.

This is another matter, but Calcotti, do you think that Local Housing Allowance rates will also be reduced back to their previous levels after November?

They have also been increased until April 2021, the same timescale as UC standard allowance and WTC.

[Deleted User]

Thanks, Poppy, that's good to know.   I'd hope they never bring them back to their previous levels, because they were so out of step with actual rents.   But then who knows where rents will be next April.  It's not impossible to imagine that they'll have fallen, so it might not even matter if LHA rents are reduced again.   Thanks again for your answer.

calcotti

I think there is a possibility that the temporary increase to UC will be made permenant because politic headlines may may it difficult to withdraw - although extending it would increase pressure on the government to provide a matching increase to legacy benefits so that may put them off.
I think the increase to LHA is more vulnerable although government will be under strong pressure to retain it. Even now LHA is only set at 30th percentile of local rents whereas when Labour introduced LHA it was set at 50th percentile.
However this is all speculation. The law currently provides for the increases to apply only until April next year so the assumption for planning purposes needs to be that they will end then.

Pinkbunny2000

Thanks all

so after November or whenever the min income floor comes back, how long is the window where it doesn’t apply? I seem to remember about nine months or something but what are the details please?

Spoonie_Turtle

Pinkbunny2000 said:

Thanks all

so after November or whenever the min income floor comes back, how long is the window where it doesn’t apply? I seem to remember about nine months or something but what are the details please?

It's 12 months for a start-up period, so if you're out of that start-up period it will apply. There was a plan to give new claimants from September a start-up period even if their business was already established, but whether that's been affected by the pandemic I don't know.

(I think with 9 months you might be thinking of the grace period for the benefit cap.)

Details of MIF exceptions here: https://revenuebenefits.org.uk/universal-credit/guidance/entitlement-to-uc/self-employment/minimum-income-floor/#exceptions to the MIF

Pinkbunny2000

Does the min income floor apply if you are not self employed?

if a couple has only one working and earning £640 month do they put pressure on you to earn more?