Universal Credit/pension for mixed age couples

georgieo4

Hi,

I have some questions regarding universal credit and pensions as a mixed age couple.

My husband will receive his state pension early next year, from 21st January. He currently receives contribution based esa, in the support group and I am on his claim. The last fortnightly payment is due 11th January, then there are 9 days left of esa before his pension starts. He also receives PIP and I receive carer's allowance.

I think, from reading about these things,  we have to claim universal credit, as a mixed age couple. 

I am wondering what is the best date to make a claim for uc?

Does anyone know if we make a uc claim before the 11th January, will we then not receive this esa payment? Or should we wait until we have received the 11th January payment? 

Would we still get the last 9 days payment, whether or not we claimed uc? Or will the 11th January be the last payment? 

Also, how long do you get when you save your answers, before you do have to send in the claim for uc? 

I apologise if these questions seem daft - it has been a steep learning curve, trying to sort out the information and the best way to approach this change. Having got this far in trying to work out what to do and when, these last few hurdles to sort out have confused us!

Thanks for reading and for any pointers or advice about these questions or anything else we have missed and should know about. Thank you.

poppy12345

You should claim UC before he reaches state pension age, when you do this he will be entitled to the LCWRA element from the start of his claim. You also need to report being his carer and then you will receive the carers element in with your maximum UC entitlement. When you claim UC the ESA will continue for a further 2 weeks.Part of his ESA must be Income Related if you are on the claim. Any part that's contributions based will continue until the day before he reaches state pension age (£114.10 per week)

The State pension will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement, as well as the carers allowance.

Do you claim housing benefit for help with any rent? If you do then this will also continue for a further 2 weeks once you claim UC and then it will transfer to UC.

Whether there will be any entitlement to UC will depend on how much his state pension is. Use a benefits calculator to check entitlement. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/benefits-calculator/Intro/Home?cid=c32858cc-f270-4136-9da2-013baa2b1d70

Alice_Holt

It may be worth having a conversation with:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/help-to-claim/
as your questions are quite technical in nature.

Are you in receipt of Housing Benefit (HB) currently ?

If not, then it may be worthwhile applying for UC in advance (due to the 5 week payment wait), as an application would not end CB-ESA or carers allowance (unlike HB which would end once UC is claimed).  
What happens is CB-ESA and CA payments are deducted from any UC payable, and you receive the balance.

However, I'm not entirely confident about timing a UC claim in your circumstance (and what happens if there is no UC due after deduction of ESA and CA), so hopefully  you will get other replies / suggestions.

Spoonie_Turtle

georgieo4 said:

Hi,

I have some questions regarding universal credit and pensions as a mixed age couple.

My husband will receive his state pension early next year, from 21st January. He currently receives contribution based esa, in the support group and I am on his claim. The last fortnightly payment is due 11th January, then there are 9 days left of esa before his pension starts. He also receives PIP and I receive carer's allowance.

I think, from reading about these things,  we have to claim universal credit, as a mixed age couple. 

I am wondering what is the best date to make a claim for uc?

Does anyone know if we make a uc claim before the 11th January, will we then not receive this esa payment? Or should we wait until we have received the 11th January payment? 

Would we still get the last 9 days payment, whether or not we claimed uc? Or will the 11th January be the last payment? 

Also, how long do you get when you save your answers, before you do have to send in the claim for uc? 

I apologise if these questions seem daft - it has been a steep learning curve, trying to sort out the information and the best way to approach this change. Having got this far in trying to work out what to do and when, these last few hurdles to sort out have confused us!

Thanks for reading and for any pointers or advice about these questions or anything else we have missed and should know about. Thank you.

I can't answer many of your questions but contributions-based ESA would continue until pension age with a Universal Credit claim and would be deducted in full from UC.

When you claim, make sure to tell them you care for your husband; your Carers Allowance will also be deducted in full but you won't lose out as you'll get the carer's element of UC.  You'll also not be expected to look for work because of your casting responsibilities.  (However if you did do any work in the future, the carer's element doesn't have any earnings limit like Carers Allowance does.)

You may also need to nudge them to make sure they honour your husband's support group status to get the LCWRA element from the start of your claim.

Edit: cross-posted with the other - better - advice!

georgieo4

Thanks very much for your reply and good advice poppy12345

I was just worried that by claiming uc, whatever we may be entitled to, if anything, that we would lose the last payment/s  of esa. So it is safe to claim before 11th January, and still receive the esa before the uc starts. We don't have housing benefits.

I have read that in effect, you lose a weeks payment when going onto uc. We will just be glad to have the claim started.

Alice_Holt

georgieo4 said:

I was just worried that by claiming uc, whatever we may be entitled to, if anything, that we would lose the last payment/s  of esa. So it is safe to claim before 11th January, and still receive the esa before the uc starts. We don't have housing benefits.

        Then, I think claiming UC in advance could be a good plan as that will not end the last contribution-based ESA payments.

      It would be worth checking your UC entitlements (per poppy), and if the there is no UC entitlement for the first month (due to the deduction of ESA and CA), checking with the help to claim team what happens to your UC claim. I.e does it remain open. 

georgieo4

Thank you Alice_Holt and Spoonie_Turtle for your help. 

 I did speak to citizens advice - but unfortunately I got two different answers, as I had another query, which was relevant to the whole situation. So it left me more confused. I did wonder if we are not entitled to anything then the claim is void and shuts down? And therefore hoped we would still receive the last weeks of esa.

Yes, I will say I am his carer and it was good to read there are no earning limits if I work in the future under uc. I will make sure to check and chase up the LCWRA element from the start of the claim.

Thanks for the advice and how it seems to work. 

calcotti

georgieo4 said: I have read that in effect, you lose a weeks payment when going onto uc.

I don't think that is quite true. If you claim UC the income based ESA continues for two weeks so you actually get paid both income based ESA and UC for a two week period. However in terms of cash flow you are right. The last ESA payment will be two weeks after the UC claim is started but the first UC payment will not be due until one month and one week after it is started. So it's the payment timings that can be disruptive rather than actually losing money.

Alice_Holt said: However, I'm not entirely confident about timing a UC claim in your circumstance (and what happens if there is no UC due after deduction of ESA and CA), so hopefully  you will get other replies / suggestions.

I would expect someone in this position to be slightly better off on UC than ESA. OP you can check entitlement by using a benefits calculator Turn2us Benefits Calculator.

You can put your details in as existing and compare UC and ESA.

If you then pretend your husband was born six months earlier than his actual birthday you will be able to put his pension in and see if there is any UC entitlement. Do this before claiming UC. There may be no UC entitlement when he is pension age (see calculation below) in which case it is pointless putting yourselves through the application process.

You said you have no rent and assuming you have no children:

UC standard allowance  £509.91
LCWRA element             £343.63
carer element                  £163.73
                                      -------------
maximum                       £1017.27

Unearned income
Carer's Allowance            £292.93
State Pension                  £778.27 (if your husband gets the flat rate new State Pension of £179.60)
                                      -------------
                                       £1071.20

Unearned income exceeds maximum UC amount so no UC is payable.

Does your husband know how much State Pension he will receive? Note that if he does gets £179.60/week, although there is no UC entitlement, he will be receiving more than he currently gets on ESA so you will be better off.

Note that if you are claiming Council tax Reduction this will be recalculated when your husband reaches pension age.

georgieo4

I have just done 'before and after retirement; calculations on turn2us. On uc we would be slightly better off but both calculations for before and after retirement state there would be no universal credit as income exceeds entitlement. However, in both calculations it includes my husbands PIP, whereby I thought it was disregarded? It is disregarded now, so I am a bit confused. 

georgieo4

And to add, citizens advice said we would be entitled to a smaller amount, which works out to around £55 a week. 

poppy12345

georgieo4 said:

I have just done 'before and after retirement; calculations on turn2us. On uc we would be slightly better off but both calculations for before and after retirement state there would be no universal credit as income exceeds entitlement. However, in both calculations it includes my husbands PIP, whereby I thought it was disregarded? It is disregarded now, so I am a bit confused. 

PIP isn't means tested so it's disregarded when claiming UC. If your husbands State pension is £179.60 per week then there will be no entitlement to UC.

CAB are not correct with their calculation.