Uc £20 extra a week what about people on legacy benefits

calcotti

Barny1979 said: I thought the £20 uplift was to cover extra costs for those who have children at home, rather than in school during the day?

The £20 uplift had nothing to do with children. It was intended to soften the blow for those in work who might be losing their jobs or experiencing reduced earnings and therefore entering the benefits system for the first time. That's why it wasn't extended to all benefits for existing claimants. Existing non working UC claimants were lucky beneficiaries because they couldn't be separated out..

KatrinaWaves said: I thought it was as covid led to millions (maybe an exaggeration...) of new UC claims that these people were coming from work and now had to survive on UC, so the uplift was there to ease the transition between wages and UC. Now you can’t just split that group off from the people already on UC so everyone got it.

Those on legacy benefits have been on benefits for a long time and therefore did not need to adapt to a benefit income during Covid. 

Agreed.

NedS

The extra £20/week was designed to bring UC in line with Statutory Sick Pay amounts so those workers who were not entitled to Statutory Sick Pay could claim UC for a short period of sickness during corona virus and not be disadvantaged. It makes no sense to apply it to people claiming JSA or ESA as they were (largely) not working anyway so have not been disadvantaged by not being entitled to SSP, and if they feel so aggrieved about missing out they are welcome to make a claim UC.

KxMx

Except someone getting UC LCWRA or UC JSA equivalent got the increase as well... 

As someone who gets ESA LCWRA, why would I claim UC having to go weeks without payment and probably triggering a new medical assessment, running the real (unnecessary) risk of losing the LCWRA element entirely?

I've been through the appeal process before it is a nightmare!

calcotti

KxMx said:

Except someone getting UC LCWRA or UC JSA equivalent got the increase as well... 

But, as already explained, that was not the policy intent. Existing claimants were fortuitous beneficiaries because it was simply not possible to apply the increase to new claimants only.

KxMx said: As someone who gets ESA LCWRA, why would I claim UC having to go weeks without payment 

Except that the delay in payment is only just over a week next t weeks. If someone claims UC the ESA carries on for two weeks and the UC payment is just over 5 weeks after the claim date, so a little over one week later than the next ESA payment would have been due.

KxMx said:...probably triggering a new medical assessment, running the real (unnecessary) risk of losing the LCWRA element entirely?

Although this can happen it is not the norm so ‘probably’ is not correct, ‘possibly’ would be more apt.

There are still good reasons why some might prefer not to switch to UC until they are required to.

Spoonie_Turtle

KxMx said:

Except someone getting UC LCWRA or UC JSA equivalent got the increase as well... 

As someone who gets ESA LCWRA, why would I claim UC having to go weeks without payment and probably triggering a new medical assessment, running the real (unnecessary) risk of losing the LCWRA element entirely?

I've been through the appeal process before it is a nightmare!

You don't have to, unless you want the (temporary) increase. UC LCWRA without the increase already pays more than ESA Support Group in some circumstances though. It's up to claimants to find out what's best for them.

[Deleted User]

Barny1979 said:

kimp22 said:

So if all kids get free school meal vouchers on uc and legacy benefits don't. That's not fair just because I am disabled.

Kym

What extra costs have you had since Covid? I thought the £20 uplift was to cover extra costs for those who have children at home, rather than in school during the day?

not true all UC claims got the £20 uplift payable until April 2021