No help from Universal Credit for 6 months +

gary83

ripplyuk said:

macman said:

Does your infant child have underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to infection? If not, their risk from COVID-19 is minute, or less.

You don’t know that. No one knows the long-term effects of this virus. We’re only beginning to see some of the consequences. I think the OP is absolutely right to be careful. 

By the same token the millions of people who remained at work in key roles (NHS staff, carers, teachers and supermarket staff etc.) Didn’t get the right to be careful /overly cautious . I’m sure they’d rather “not interact with people outside of their family bubble and risk the health of my infant child.” However they didn’t have a choice if they wanted the money to come in to support that family, why should this be any different? they also weren’t allowed to decide which “rules were nul & void during a pandemic”

ripplyuk

gary83 said:

ripplyuk said:

macman said:

Does your infant child have underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to infection? If not, their risk from COVID-19 is minute, or less.

You don’t know that. No one knows the long-term effects of this virus. We’re only beginning to see some of the consequences. I think the OP is absolutely right to be careful. 

By the same token the millions of people who remained at work in key roles (NHS staff, carers, teachers and supermarket staff etc.) Didn’t get the right to be careful /overly cautious . I’m sure they’d rather “not interact with people outside of their family bubble and risk the health of my infant child.” However they didn’t have a choice if they wanted the money to come in to support that family, why should this be any different? they also weren’t allowed to decide which “rules were nul & void during a pandemic”

I wasn’t commenting on the rights and wrongs of the rules during this pandemic. I was responding to another user who stated the risk from Covid to children, is minute. 

I totally understand that many people have been forced to put themselves and their families in danger in order to keep their income. That doesn’t mean it’s the best thing to do or that the OP’s concerns are invalid. 

Semple

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

calcotti said:

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

Those rules are nil and void in a pandemic with the economy crashing, especially at the time they told us to sell. I've just got off the phone with a mortgage adviser who said not to sell and wait for this to all blow over, as well as saying they couldn't offer me a mortgage now due to my business being so adversely affected. If a mortgage adviser is saying that now as we're heading into lockdown tomorrow, then he would have said it mid-lockdown too. I've been given 6 months notice to move out of my private rented property. I spoke to an office within the independent company I'm taking Universal Credit to court through yesterday and they said that Universal Credit are basically avoiding me, as did this mortgage adviser. Citizen's advise are also on the case for me to try and get answers from anyone.

DWP were accepting nil value for properties for part of the lockdown. Currently they take the view that the market is open.
You have the option of putting the property on the market. you then benefit from the disregard. If after six months there has been no interest you may get an extension to the disregard. 
Sometimes you just have to try and navigate a way through the machine (you can rage against as well if you like).

Where did you find this information? I was just saying it as obvious fact but anyone I've spoken to hasn't mentioned that. I've seen they're not closing the housing market again this time. I see, again this wasn't mentioned, they simply worded it like they were trying to bully us into selling the house to use the money to support myself but it'll run out as things stand, then I'd be back at square one and they'd have to support me, which is counterintuitive. Indeed, knowledge is power. Navigate against the machine...maybe i should change my name. Thanks   

It might seem counter-intuitive, but the point is that you have an investment to support yourself. Whilst I imagine that investment would last you a lot longer than this pandemic, if it did run out, then UC would step in.

It's no different than when people post on here having been denied UC because they have a large amount of savings, but they don't want to dip into those.

RagingAgainstTheMachine

So, further down the line. I contacted Universal Credit to confirm that if I put the house on the market it would be disregarded until it is sold and that was confirmed by the person I spoke to, whose name I took and made a note of the phone call date and time. I was also told to make a new claim, which we did. After the usual Universal Credit mess around application getting delayed by a week as they didn't ring when they said they would for the final part of the process, this week-late phone call was someone telling me the property wouldn't be disregarded and nothing would happen until my tribunal has reached its conclusion. The property is due to go on the market after photos being taken and a floor plan drawn up this Saturday, the tenant has been served his 6 month notice, what a joke this entire system is. 

euronorris

Whilst I understand the desire to protect your health and that of your young child, it also has to be balanced with you being able to maintain an income to pay the bills and buy groceries. In your situation I would absolutely take the risk of a job that expanded my contact with other people. Needs must. No good keeping the germs away if I don't have enough money to feed my child or myself.

calcotti

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

So, further down the line. I contacted Universal Credit to confirm that if I put the house on the market it would be disregarded until it is sold and that was confirmed by the person I spoke to, whose name I took and made a note of the phone call date and time. I was also told to make a new claim, which we did. After the usual Universal Credit mess around application getting delayed by a week as they didn't ring when they said they would for the final part of the process, this week-late phone call was someone telling me the property wouldn't be disregarded and nothing would happen until my tribunal has reached its conclusion. The property is due to go on the market after photos being taken and a floor plan drawn up this Saturday, the tenant has been served his 6 month notice, what a joke this entire system is. 

The rules are clear. If the property is up for sale it is disregarded.  See Chapter H2: Capital disregards (publishing.service.gov.uk)

H2115 Where a person is trying to dispose of premises, they can be disregarded from the calculation of that person’s capital where they are taking reasonable steps to dispose of the premises and those steps have been commenced within the last 6 months. (UC Regs, Sch 10, para 6)
 Is it reasonable to disregard for longer
H2116 The DM may decide to disregard the premises for a longer period where for example the person has done all they can to sell the premises and the asking price is no more than the premises are worth

Aranyani

ripplyuk said:

gary83 said:

ripplyuk said:

macman said:

Does your infant child have underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to infection? If not, their risk from COVID-19 is minute, or less.

You don’t know that. No one knows the long-term effects of this virus. We’re only beginning to see some of the consequences. I think the OP is absolutely right to be careful. 

By the same token the millions of people who remained at work in key roles (NHS staff, carers, teachers and supermarket staff etc.) Didn’t get the right to be careful /overly cautious . I’m sure they’d rather “not interact with people outside of their family bubble and risk the health of my infant child.” However they didn’t have a choice if they wanted the money to come in to support that family, why should this be any different? they also weren’t allowed to decide which “rules were nul & void during a pandemic”

I wasn’t commenting on the rights and wrongs of the rules during this pandemic. I was responding to another user who stated the risk from Covid to children, is minute. 

I totally understand that many people have been forced to put themselves and their families in danger in order to keep their income. That doesn’t mean it’s the best thing to do or that the OP’s concerns are invalid. 

Children are exposed to lots of risk from birth to adulthood, Covid is a lot less risky than lots of other things they will need to encounter if they are to grow up happy, healthy and well adjusted.  Swimming pools, dogs, cars, other kids, other adults, other infectious diseases that actually do make infants very unwell etc etc.

Grumpy_chap

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

back on March 17th, knowing my self employment would be adversely impacted, myself and pregnant fiancée attempted to get ahead of the rush and apply for Universal Credit

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

My late father's property, that myself and my brother rent out, is what they used against us. They were basically saying we need to sell it to support ourselves.

This thread is hard to follow and little information that allows those who know about UC to really say whether a claim is likely to be valid.  Seems odd to me that the OP did not include the half house and rental income as part of the first OP.  What else has been omitted?

As Calcutti has explained, there are rules that permit the value of the property to be disregarded if the property is on the market and some cases where equity in a property could be determined as "zero" at times during the pandemic.  Maybe the UC advisers were not using the property against the OP, but giving advice that to put it on the market would show intent to sell...

Is it also possible that when the claim was submitted in March, in advance of self-employment being adversely impacted, but the OP only "knowing" that would be the case, the assessment would have been against current income level that did not qualify for UC?  What type of work does the OP do?  To what extent can that work carry on?  It can't be expected that UC is paid to people that "know" or "expect" that their income will be impacted - UC has to work on hard facts.

Without full information from the OP, it is hard to see how anyone can assess the OP's position and give suggestions.  From what the OP has shared so far, the case for a tribunal or appeal seems unclear.

68ComebackSpecial

calcotti said:

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

So, further down the line. I contacted Universal Credit to confirm that if I put the house on the market it would be disregarded until it is sold and that was confirmed by the person I spoke to, whose name I took and made a note of the phone call date and time. I was also told to make a new claim, which we did. After the usual Universal Credit mess around application getting delayed by a week as they didn't ring when they said they would for the final part of the process, this week-late phone call was someone telling me the property wouldn't be disregarded and nothing would happen until my tribunal has reached its conclusion. The property is due to go on the market after photos being taken and a floor plan drawn up this Saturday, the tenant has been served his 6 month notice, what a joke this entire system is. 

The rules are clear. If the property is up for sale it is disregarded.  See Chapter H2: Capital disregards (publishing.service.gov.uk)

H2115 Where a person is trying to dispose of premises, they can be disregarded from the calculation of that person’s capital where they are taking reasonable steps to dispose of the premises and those steps have been commenced within the last 6 months. (UC Regs, Sch 10, para 6)
 Is it reasonable to disregard for longer
H2116 The DM may decide to disregard the premises for a longer period where for example the person has done all they can to sell the premises and the asking price is no more than the premises are worth

Which the OP is only just getting round to - 8 months down the line.

Niv

What's to stop the OP putting the house on the market and simply not accepting any offers? Therefore triggering the UC but not having to kick out their tenant or lose their asset.