PIP and universal credit

heidiprincess13

Hi all, I am hoping someone can help. My husband is in receipt of standard rate daily living allowance for pip. He is unable to work anymore. How does universal credit work? I have just got a job which is 18 hours a week and a gross yearly salary of £6735.00

I have a claim in for carers allowance but we were wondering if we are able to claim universal credit.

And will he still receive his pip payment or will it be paid with universal credit as one lump sum each month?

Thanks in advance

tacpot12

He will receive his PIP regardless of whether you qualify for Universal Credit. You will need to apply for Universal Credit as a couple.

Your new job looks like it might disqualify you from claiming Carers Allowance. Your job is paying you £129 per week, but you need to be earning £128 per week or less to claim Carers Allowance. Have a read of this page to see if you might be eligible to deduct an expenses from your income to maintain your eligibility for Carers Allowance: Work-related costs and Carer's Allowance - Entitledto

I'd recommend using the Benefits Calculator at Entitledto in order to check what you might receive if you claim Universal Credit. You can tell the calculator that your husband is already receiving PIP. 

If his becoming unable to work is a recent thing, you should check out whether ESA would be a better benefit for him to claim. The benefits calculator at Entitledto will consider this option. 

You can claim ESA and Universal Credit (UC) at the same time, if your are renting or have childcare costs. 

His PIP payment will be made seperately to any ESA or UC payments. If he claims ESA or UC, it should have any effect on when he is paid PIP. 

Rubyroobs

PIP is paid separately to Uc. You can continue to  claim carers allowance if your earnings are under £128 a week.
Whether you are eligible to claim UC depends on many factors - whether you have kids, rent to pay etc and whether you have savings. If you have savings over 16k you cannot claim UC. Any savings above 6k will reduce any Uc you receive.
If your husband has worked recently and paid NI contributions during the past 2-3 years, he may be able to claim New style ESA. You would need a full benefits check to find out what would be most beneficial to you.

poppy12345

PIP is not part of Universal Credit. Whether you're entitled to any UC will depend on your circumstances. If you currently claim tax credits a claim for UC will end the tax credits.

Use a benefits calculator to check entitlement to UC, https://www.entitledto.co.uk/benefits-calculator/Intro/Home?cid=156df6c0-6631-486b-bb63-0bee247ba123 If you are entitled then he will need to report his health condition and send in fit notes from his GP. If you have savings/capital of more than £16,000 you're excluded from claiming.

You say "he's unable to work anymore" was he previously working in the past 2 tax years? If he was and he's paid enough NI contirbutions then he could claim New style ESA. It's not means tested so other household income/savings/capital will not affect the amount he's entitled to. He will need a fit note from his GP to be able to claim this. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-employment-and-support-allowance

If both of the above are claimed together the ESA is deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

If you're working 18 hours per week then you will not be able to claim Carers Allowance because you will be earning more than £128 per week, which is the maximum you can earn each week when claiming CA. https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility

heidiprincess13

my husband has been working (20 Hours a week), but he is not able to anymore due to an injury. I am not sure he has paid any national insurance contributions as he wasn't earning enough.

I will get on to the benefits calculator now and have a look. We are in a housing association property and have an 11 year old daughter, an 18 year old son who works and takes home around £1400 a month, and our 19 year old son suddenly passed away just 6 weeks ago.

I will be working in a school so the salary for the 38 weeks I work is split between 52 weeks so I receive a wage during the half terms and summer holidays.

poppy12345

tacpot12 said:

You can claim ESA and Universal Credit (UC) at the same time, if your are renting or have childcare costs. 

New style ESA is the only one that's possible to claim now and if you claim this and UC at the same time, the ESA is deducted in full from any UC entitlement. Though it's still worth claiming the NsESA because it's not means tested and it also pays class 1 NI credits, where as UC only pays class 3.

Spoonie_Turtle

Just to add, if you claim UC you can claim the carer's element and that doesn't have an earnings limit like CA does.

If your husband claims ESA as well as UC, they would deduct the ESA in full as well as make deductions for your wage, so until he's had an assessment there may not be any entitlement left - however claiming and keeping it open with nil payable would perhaps be beneficial if he's later assessed as having LCWRA (which pays more than ESA in the support group) but also possibly if assessed as having LCW, because you would then have the work allowance (an earnings disregard) applied back to the start of your claim.  [If you have children you would have the work allowance from the start anyway.]

Do you have children, rent, savings?

heidiprincess13

we have an 11 year old daughter, our 18 year old works 36 hours a week and takes home £1400 a month and our eldest son who was 19 suddenly passed away just 6 weeks ago



we have no savings and our rent is £118 per week as we are in a housing association home

poppy12345

Sorry for your loss! are you claiming any benefits at the moment? Help with your rent through housing benefit maybe?

Your 18 year old son's income will not affect your entitlement to any benefits because this his income.

heidiprincess13

It won’t let me reply to an individual comment, 

Thank you. We currently get £43 child tax credits, working tax credit is £103. Obviously this isn’t the case now as I start my job on Monday and my husband will be giving up work. We had an overpayment for housing benefit from before so I have been paying full rent and council tax and I had an email from them today saying we will need to do a new claim. Am I right in saying a new claim is only available via universal credit.


why do they not take into consideration our sons income?

poppy12345

New claims for housing benefit are no longer possible as it's now UC. Have you used the benefits calculator to check you'll be better off on UC than you are on tax credit?

Your son's income won't affect your UC because your husband claims daily living PIP so there will be no non dependant deductions. Even if he wasn't claiming PIP because your son is under 21 there is no dependant deductions for housing element of UC.

Please use the benefits calculator above.

If you're earning more than £128 per week you will need to tell Carers Allowance because you won't be entitled to it.

As advised, if you claim UC you will be able to report being a carer for your partner and you're maximum entitlement will include the carers element.