Universal Credit & Council Tax

kazzyd_2

I work 17 hours a week and until recently was receiving Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Child Benefit and a small amount of HB.
My 19 yr old son has now left college so we have both applied for UC.
So, I'm trying to work out if I'll still be better off in work. I can't work more hours due to my health & I already struggle with 17 hours.
I take home £666 a month. I've already been told UC will cover my rent so I'm happy with that. I won't get any money because I think I've worked out the 63p in the £1 correctly, they would deduct £419 and my allowance is £409, again, that's fine.

What I don't know yet, is how much Council Tax I'll pay. I did get a single persons discount and I pay £92 a month.
Is it likely I'll get a discount or will it go up because I'm no longer a single person household.
It's this that's going to determine if I'm worse off, if it goes up, by the time I pay travel and things for work, I'll be worse off nearly.

calcotti

kazzyd_2 said: I work 17 hours a week and until recently was receiving Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Child Benefit and a small amount of HB.

My 19 yr old son has now left college so we have both applied for UC.
So, I'm trying to work out if I'll still be better off in work. I can't work more hours due to my health & I already struggle with 17 hours.
I take home £666 a month. I've already been told UC will cover my rent so I'm happy with that. I won't get any money because I think I've worked out the 63p in the £1 correctly, they would deduct £419 and my allowance is £409, again, that's fine.

What I don't know yet, is how much Council Tax I'll pay. I did get a single persons discount and I pay £92 a month.
Is it likely I'll get a discount or will it go up because I'm no longer a single person household.
It's this that's going to determine if I'm worse off, if it goes up, by the time I pay travel and things for work, I'll be worse off nearly.

You must tell your local authority that your son has left education. You will lose the 25% single person discount (unless he is going on to higher education and will still be a student). This is quite separate from Council Tax Reduction.

Every council has it's own rules for Council tax Reduction. For UC claimants most councils now calculate CTR based on information supplied to them by DWP. If you were on UC with no earnings you would get the maximum CTR available from your local authority. The CTR will reduce because you have earnings but you would need to look at the details of your own local authority scheme to see how this might affect you.

If you have a health condition that limits your ability to work and your GP is willing to issue a Fit Note to you saying this then you could report the condition to DWP. If you are found to have Limited capability for Work then you would get a Work Allowance of £292/month which means that you would get an additional £184 of UC.

When you say that you have been told that UC will cover your rent - are you sure you have understood that correctly? UC is one award made up of elements, each bit is not a separate award. Your UC will be made up of a standard allowance and a housing element. This makes up the maximum UC amount payable. The earnings deduction is taken from this whole amount. Given that the earnings deduction of £419 exceeds your standard allowance of £409 I would expect your UC payable to be slightly less than the housing element so even if the housing element is for the whole of your rent you will still receive slightly less than that.
If your rent is say £450/month your UC would be £409.89 plus £450 minus £419 = £440.89

kazzyd_2

Hi

Thanks for  the reply. My local authority already know he has left education.

I'm also currently awaiting a decision on PIP, I don't hold out much hope for that though. I've had a quick look at the Fit Note and limited capabilities but don't really understand it, I'll have another look. It more mental health problems I have rather than physical ones.

I'm not sure if I have understood the rent part correctly, I hope I have as this was my biggest worry, I'm thinking as long as that's covered, I could manage on just my wage. I got this in my journal the other day, this is my full rent...
So even if I have to pay £10 to my rent, this is manageable for me.

Galloglass

Has the rent always been paid directly to the landlord or is this new? Have you any rent arrears?

UC works like a pay slip. You get a number of allowances based on your circumstances. The total of the allowances is then "taxed" as in deductions are made from the total. What is left over is your UC payment.

From the UC payment, there may be further deductions for UC advances, or loans or arrangements (like rent), or for 3rd party debts. So people can easily get into the situation of all their UC allowance being reduced to near zero if they have loans, arrangements and debts that are significant (and usually long term)

So back to the rent question. If you have arrears there is usually a local scheme called Discretionary Housing Payments which is used to clear rental debts if the rental debts could have an adverse effect on people. And even if you are not in rental debt, knowing about DHP may be useful at some time in the future.

calcotti

kazzyd_2 said:

Hi

Thanks for  the reply. My local authority already know he has left education.

I'm also currently awaiting a decision on PIP, I don't hold out much hope for that though. I've had a quick look at the Fit Note and limited capabilities but don't really understand it, I'll have another look. It more mental health problems I have rather than physical ones.

I'm not sure if I have understood the rent part correctly, I hope I have as this was my biggest worry, I'm thinking as long as that's covered, I could manage on just my wage. I got this in my journal the other day, this is my full rent...
So even if I have to pay £10 to my rent, this is manageable for me.

So is your rent £330.94/month or is it more than this? You have to pay the difference. From what you posted earlier I would expect you to have to pay about £10/month - but your opening post appeared to indicate that you thought all your rent would be covered.

kazzyd_2

Galloglass said:

Has the rent always been paid directly to the landlord or is this new? Have you any rent arrears?

UC works like a pay slip. You get a number of allowances based on your circumstances. The total of the allowances is then "taxed" as in deductions are made from the total. What is left over is your UC payment.

From the UC payment, there may be further deductions for UC advances, or loans or arrangements (like rent), or for 3rd party debts. So people can easily get into the situation of all their UC allowance being reduced to near zero if they have loans, arrangements and debts that are significant (and usually long term)

So back to the rent question. If you have arrears there is usually a local scheme called Discretionary Housing Payments which is used to clear rental debts if the rental debts could have an adverse effect on people. And even if you are not in rental debt, knowing about DHP may be useful at some time in the future.

Housing Benefit has always been paid direct to my landlord but this was only a small amount as I paid most of it myself. I don't have any arrears and not planning to take an advance so there shouldnt hopefully be any deductions apart from the £10 difference, this I can manage.

kazzyd_2

calcotti said:

kazzyd_2 said:

Hi

Thanks for  the reply. My local authority already know he has left education.

I'm also currently awaiting a decision on PIP, I don't hold out much hope for that though. I've had a quick look at the Fit Note and limited capabilities but don't really understand it, I'll have another look. It more mental health problems I have rather than physical ones.

I'm not sure if I have understood the rent part correctly, I hope I have as this was my biggest worry, I'm thinking as long as that's covered, I could manage on just my wage. I got this in my journal the other day, this is my full rent...
So even if I have to pay £10 to my rent, this is manageable for me.

So is your rent £330.94/month or is it more than this? You have to pay the difference. From what you posted earlier I would expect you to have to pay about £10/month - but your opening post appeared to indicate that you thought all your rent would be covered.

calcotti said:

kazzyd_2 said:

Hi

Thanks for  the reply. My local authority already know he has left education.

I'm also currently awaiting a decision on PIP, I don't hold out much hope for that though. I've had a quick look at the Fit Note and limited capabilities but don't really understand it, I'll have another look. It more mental health problems I have rather than physical ones.

I'm not sure if I have understood the rent part correctly, I hope I have as this was my biggest worry, I'm thinking as long as that's covered, I could manage on just my wage. I got this in my journal the other day, this is my full rent...
So even if I have to pay £10 to my rent, this is manageable for me.

So is your rent £330.94/month or is it more than this? You have to pay the difference. From what you posted earlier I would expect you to have to pay about £10/month - but your opening post appeared to indicate that you thought all your rent would be covered.

My rent is £330.94. Yes initially I thought it would all be covered but I did wonder about the £10 difference, so yes, this is manageable for me.
It's just now the Council Tax reduction I'm waiting to hear about and hoping I do get one.

TheShape

I'm going to raise what I think might be an important consideration.

If, after calculating the OPs entitlement and making a deduction for earnings this leaves £330.94 it would be important to consider what might happen if/when OP receives a pay rise and/or also what might occur if the standard allowance for UC is reduced in April (reversing some/all of the increase to the rate due to Corona virus).

I think it would be very prudent to check the statement every month because whilst there may be enough allowance remaining to pay £330.94 towards the rent now, this may not always be the case.

Rubyroobs

I think your earnings need to be under a certain amount each month to apply for LCW. maybe 16 x nmw per week unless you have PIP in place? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will correct me if this is wrong.

poppy12345

Rubyroobs said:

I think your earnings need to be under a certain amount each month to apply for LCW. maybe 16 x nmw per week unless you have PIP in place? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will correct me if this is wrong.

Yes, that's correct.

kazzyd_2

poppy12345 said:

Rubyroobs said:

I think your earnings need to be under a certain amount each month to apply for LCW. maybe 16 x nmw per week unless you have PIP in place? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will correct me if this is wrong.

Yes, that's correct.

Thank you, I'm currently doing 17 hours.