Contribution Based ESA & Housing Benefit (Via UC)

SteveP29

Hi,
Due to increasing disability my partner and myself are having to leave our 2nd floor council flat for a ground floor housing association flat.
The rent we will be paying is around £180 per month more than ee currently pay.
My partner is currently receiving Contribution based ESA, is in the Support Group and gets standard PIP for both mobility and daily living.
I work full time earning just under £22k.
I have used the benefit calculator at Turn2Us, this has indicated that we will be eligible for Housing Benefit under a Universal Credit claim.
My partner is concerned that she will be forced to change to an income based ESA claim (also now under UC) and she will lose the benefit she gets from her current ESA.
She simply cannot work due to the nature of her disabilities and is also concerned that she would have to go through almost the same procedure she had to gobthrough to get PIP, which was humiliating and degrading and that she'd be required to appear at the job centre every so often.
The benefit calculator did not indicate that she would have to move to income based.
Is anyone able to confirm or deny that she will move to UC if we do make a claim for Housing benefit.
Thanks in advance for any responses, I hope my explanation hasn't been too vague to follow.

poppy12345

An ESA claim that is all Contributions based will never be part of UC so his ESA will continue and payments will be as normal.

Under UC she will receive the LCWRA element because she's in the Support Group (ESA) Her ESA amount will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

As she's claiming daily living PIP if no one else is claiming Carers Allowance or Carers element of UC for looking after her then you will be able to claim the carers element in with your maximum UC entitlement.

Just so that you're aware, it's not called housing benefit, it's housing element and this makes up part of your maximum UC entitlement.  A claim for UC will end any tax credits you may already be claiming. If you have savings/capital of more than £16,000 you're excluded from claiming.

calcotti

And in deciding whether it is worth the bother of claiming bear in mind that UC entitlement will reduce by £87/month in October unless government change their mind.

You need to also take into account that if you have any spare bedrooms you will be expected to pay some of the rent yourself.

SteveP29

Thank you both of you.
We don't claim carers allowance or carers element, I do however get carers credit which although pays nothing monetarily, I will be guaranteed my NI credits if I ever lose my job (which is how I've interpreted the paperwork)

Thanks for the clarification on the terminology too.

We're not claiming any tax credits, I earn too much/ work too many hours to be eligible, I don't remember which it is, and we have nothing saved at the end of each month.

We don't have any spare bedrooms, as we are moving to a 2 bedroom flat and my partner's daughter will be moving with us.

poppy12345

You can't claim the carers element unless you claim UC. You also don't need to claim Carers allowance to be able to claim this. You just need to report that you're caring for your partner for at least 35 hours per week on your journal if you claim UC.

You will also have a work allowance which means you can earn £293 per month before you start to see the 63% deductions. Whether there will be any entitlement to UC will depend on earnings received during your assessment period.