Help with upcoming UC claim..

shell1965

Please bear with me I feel it's a little complicated, here goes:- We are a couple in our late 50's, husband originally claimed Incap Benefit back in 2000, we were migrated to ESA Contribution Based and he gets the transitional protection, I have always been his adult dependent on that claim.. we never see the yearly increase in rate as it is taken off his transitional protection,, over the years he has been awarded PIP and gets enhanced daily living.. I get Carers Allowance as I take on a lot of the caring for him.. 
We get HB and help with CT we also took on 4 grand-children ages now, between 15 & 8 three of the children we get Special Guardianship Order money for monthly, we were awarded there child benefit and the child tax credits because the award was already in place for there parents prior to the no tax credits for 3rd or subsequent children.. the fourth grand-child we took by private arrangement with his parents and we got the child benefit & tax credit for him too.

We may have to apply for UC very soon as in April this year we were 'chosen' to be part of Housing Benefit Accuracy Initiative,, we had to complete a very in depth online questionnaire dating back to initially claiming benefits back to 2000, it was a long drawn out form asking basically a life story.. I got through it but at the end it didn't ask for any uploads for proof of anything, I double checked with another family member who agreed, before I submitted the completed form. I got the letter on April 4th and completed on April 18th, I was given a month in total to complete so well within time.

I got a letter dated yesterday, in the post today from Housing Benefit basically stating benefit award ended, apparently missing information, change of circumstance.. obviously I have rung them and spoken at length about being certain I answered everything, can't see that I missed a thing, the lady on the other end said she could only see the same thing on her screen but no access to say why but she would send a memo internally of what I had told her.. she obviously can't say if it lays with me but has asked that they get in touch to explain to me but to be prepared to have to make a new claim, which I know, means going onto UC and us losing the transitional protection as we'll no longer be on legacy benefits.

I've done the online benefits entitlement sites but both come up with differing amounts, I was wondering if any knowledgeable person might be able to help with this minefield, thanks..

Benefits currently received :- ESA Cont. £336 fortnightly, PIP £369.60 monthly  CB £260.60 a month,  Carers Allowance £278.80, monthly and Child Tax Credit £236 weekly, we also get a monthly amount of SGO money for the children, that I know should be excluded for benefits... we get HB of £85 weekly. I understand this is a lot of payments but I just need to get my head around how much of a difference there might be moving to UC, grateful to anyone who can possibly give any help.

Thanks.  

Rubyroobs

Is there any reason why you only receive CB ESA, surely it must be Income related, or at least part of it income related ? Do you have any savings?

Rubyroobs

Also is your husband in the support group of ESA ?

shell1965

He is in the support group and all I know is, it's always been contribution based, never had anything like cold weather payments or been eligible to any social fund monies at any time.. so not income based as far as I'm aware...

atlantis187

how can you get esa and carers allowance together?

shell1965

I put in a claim for it after he was awarded PIP and was there were no queries with them over him also having ESA?

shell1965

If I remember rightly, his ESA at that point, was reduced because of my Carers award..

shell1965

shell1965 said:

If I remember rightly, his ESA at that point, was reduced because of my Carers award..

I think, when we had children of ours on his benefit claim we for a short while got an I.S top up but eventually we were no longer entitled to that extra small amount... we have for years since had his ESA and PIP and Carers for myself..

calcotti

atlantis187 said:

how can you get esa and carers allowance together?

Husband gets ESA, OP gets CA.

shell1965 said:

If I remember rightly, his ESA at that point, was reduced because of my Carers award..

In which case he must have been getting some income based previously. 

Rubyroobs said:

Is there any reason why you only receive CB ESA, surely it must be Income related, or at least part of it income related ? Do you have any savings?

It will depend on how much contribution ESA he is entitled to as a result of the transitional protection provided when transferred from IB to ESA.

shell1965 said:.

I've done the online benefits entitlement sites but both come up with differing amounts, I was wondering if any knowledgeable person might be able to help with this minefield, thanks..

I would try both entitledto and turn2us, don’t use Policy in Practice. The results will not be identical but should be close if the information is entered correctly.

UC will be standard allowance, LCWRA for him, carer element for you, one child element at the higher rate and three child elements at lower rate plus a housing element (amount will be determined by your rent and whether you have spare bedrooms if in social housing or the relevant LHA if renting privately. This will give you a maximum UC amount.

The amount of UC you will get will be reduced by any contribution based ESA he will continue to get and will also be reduced by the CA.

For comparison purposes just compare the maximum amount of UC with the total of your existing Tax Credits, HB, ESA and CA.

The PIP and CB continue and will not affect the UC and should not be included in the comparison.

shell1965

His ESA has remained at £336 fortnightly for a long time... I have tried the entitledto and Policy in Practice, I will try Turn2Us tomorrow, thanks

shell1965

Rubyroobs said:

Is there any reason why you only receive CB ESA, surely it must be Income related, or at least part of it income related ? Do you have any savings?

No we've not got savings, then or now..