Migration to UC - What Should Happen with My 18 year old Special Needs Child?

deannagone

I have received a UC Migration Letter.  Currently on Legacy Benefits (Income support and SDP, Carers allowance, HB, CB, Child tax credits - including disability amounts for my son). My son has just turned 18 (so an adult), is still attending a specialist school and will be for another academic year.

I have until 25th July to complete my Tax credits review, then I have to apply for UC (again by 25th July).  Obviously will get the tax credits update done in the next few days so that at least is out of the way. Give me more time to figure out how to apply for UC and what I need to do for my son.

I currently am my son's appointee to handle all benefits  as whilst he is very intelligent, he is very anxious, easily gets overwhelmed and has communication challenges).  He currently gets enhanced PIP (care and mobility) but I have never applied for ESA for him.  

I have challenges of my own lol, get enhanced PIP care and mobility as well as the others listed.., so am in total dread at what needs to be done.  I am a member of the Works and Benefits forum so hopefully will be able to negotiate this but am extremely worried my son will lose a lot of 'his' money due to the UC change.  Should I just start a claim for ESA for him?  Can I?  What is the order in which I need to do things i.e. update Tax credits, apply for UC, but when should I do what for my son?  

We have no support to help with the form filling or understanding except for my membership of the works and benefits forum.  CAB is pretty nonexistent here.  So will need to figure it all out somehow.

I am trying to do research but get overwhelmed myself unfortunately so have to do it in small bits, trying to find what's most relevant.  There's so many interconnecting bits, this is going to be quite challenging.

I am 60 so bit unfortunate this is happening.  But realise UC migration can still happen.

Spoonie_Turtle

deannagone said:

I have received a UC Migration Letter.  Currently on Legacy Benefits (Income support and SDP, Carers allowance, HB, CTB, Child tax credits - including disability amounts for my son). My son has just turned 18 (so an adult), is still attending a specialist school and will be for another academic year.

I have until 25th July to complete my Tax credits review, then I have to apply for UC (again by 25th July).

I currently am the approved person to handle all benefits for my son as whilst he is very intelligent, he is very anxious, easily gets overwhelmed and has communication challenges).  He currently gets enhanced PIP (care and mobility) but I have never applied for ESA for him.  

I have challenges of my own lol, get enhanced PIP care and mobility as well as the others listed.., so am in total dread at what needs to be done.  I am a member of the Works and benefits forum so hopefully will be able to negotiate this but am extremely worried my son will lose a lot of 'his' money due to the UC change.  Should I just start a claim for ESA for him?  Can I?  What is the order in which I need to do things i.e. update Tax credits, apply for UC, but when should I do what for my son?  

We have no support to help with the form filling or understanding except for my membership of the works and benefits forum.  CAB is pretty nonexistent here.  So will need to figure it all out somehow.

Can you explain what you mean by this?  The UC migration is for your claim, he is currently a qualifying young person on your claim so doesn't have an income-replacement claim of his own.  

I can't remember the rules for young people and UC but they are complex for disabled young people in full-time education.  But it may depend on when he turns 19 vs when he finishes at his school, it could turn out not to be a problem.  
So for now, best to focus on what you need to do for the UC migration and your claim, then when that's sorted you can look ahead at what to do when your son is too old to be a young person on your claim.

The UC application itself should be fairly straightforward.  Make sure to declare that you're a carer - there will be a section that asks you - then you won't have any work requirements.  You will likely need to attend one or two appointments in the first month to verify your ID and to accept your claimant commitment (which will not consist of very much as you're a carer, likely just 'I'll inform UC of any relevant changes').

Also the UC application needs to be finished within 28 days of you starting it.  But as I said it should be fairly straightforward and most likely won't take you that long!  And if you have any questions when you're doing it, the members here can try to help.

deannagone

He has an EHCP, and has at least another year in school in front of him - he can stay in FE til he is 25 but doubt he will.  But what I am reading (may misunderstand) it looks like I will lose all child related benefits and Child tax credits which contains a disability payment for him).  Like I said, lots of bits that affect each other so not sure how to proceed other than apply for UC.  I am a bit overwhelmed right now.

Murphybear

Our local Citizens Advice is starting to do phone consultations rather than one to one meetings.  It means they can help a lot more people. It may be worthwhile contacting your nearest one by phone and ask if you can have a phone consultation.  It won’t matter then if your nearest CAB is at a distance 

poppy12345

deannagone said:

He has an EHCP, and has at least another year in school in front of him - he can stay in FE til he is 25 but doubt he will.  But what I am reading (may misunderstand) it looks like I will lose all child related benefits and Child tax credits which contains a disability payment for him). 

Yes, you are misunderstanding it. You will be entitled to the child element and the higher disabled child element for him in your UC maximum entitlement. 

Both of those will continue until 1st September after his 19th birthday if he continues in FTE. This is where it's different to Tax credits, when you could claim them until the day before their 20th birthday. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/child-over-16

deannagone

Thank you so much for the quick replies.  I am calming down a little and have been able to do more research.  I've also started an entitled to check, it gives a small amount of universal credit and a huge transitional payment.  I know what transitional payments are, but can't figure out where this huge figure is coming from. So difficult to check accuracy and how much I'll be worse off.  So many unknowns lol.

Does anyone have links to estimates on how long the assessment process takes.  The government website says around five weeks but I would have thought with so many being migrated during July, there are going to be too many applications to process and it will actually take a lot longer.  I know there is a loan scheme, and am trying to build a safety net of savings as I don't want to make myself even worse off by using the loan scheme but would be helpful to have a better idea of how long it will take.  I don't believe the five weeks forecast on the government UC site.  I have a horror of falling behind on rent and bills.  I am not as healthy as I was, and type one diabetic, can't just not eat like I have in the distant past to keep my son fed (this was before I was able to apply for disability type benefits which made a lot of difference).

Apologies if I am being a pain.  Sure there is something very obvious and easy to understand I am missing that other people would get lol.

Spoonie_Turtle

Five weeks is correct.  A lot of the processing of applications is done by automated computer systems, but regardless of whether any manual intervention is required - the assessment period is one calendar month, at the end of which a statement is generated based on your entitlement and what income the system knows you've received (in your case, Carers Allowance) and then the payment goes into your bank about a week later (depending on weekends and bank holidays).

poppy12345

Once you submit your claim your first payment will be 1 month and 6 days later. Your IS and housing benefit will continue to be paid for 2 weeks and then stop. 

It should be a very straight forward process and I do think you're over thinking this. 

deannagone

Not necessarily, when my older son made a fresh claim for UC due to moving out of the area, his claim took three months.   OK not a migration but every benefit I have claimed has taken longer than estimated - e.g. PIP took over a year.  So this is what I assume will happen with UC when so many people are applying for it.

I do take on board what you are saying, and hope it will go smoothly.  Its just no benefit thing has gone smoothly in the past lolol (waiting for weeks for tax credit error to be corrected x 2, then income support same thing happened led to awful situation, PIP, housing benefit errors etc) so I don't have enormous confidence in that and planning in case it doesn't.  Hope for the best but plan for the worst seems an appropriate response.  Not necesarily overthinking lol. I appreciate your help and sure its done with the best of intentions but its a teensy bit judgemental making comments like that x x x

Spoonie_Turtle

deannagone said:

Not necessarily, when my older son made a fresh claim for UC due to moving out of the area, his claim took three months. 

Wow, when was this?  That's really not supposed to happen!  Do you know why it took that long?  The reason I ask is the only explanations I can think of wouldn't apply to your claim, so if you do know why it happened then hopefully we can reassure you that it won't happen to you.

poppy12345 said:

… Your IS and housing benefit will continue to be paid for 2 weeks and then stop. 

That's a good point, I'd forgotten that happens.  It's only Tax Credits that stop straight away.

poppy12345

deannagone said:

Not necessarily, when my older son made a fresh claim for UC due to moving out of the area, his claim took three months.   

Are you 100% certain about that? When claiming UC your first payment (if entitled) is 1 month and 6 days after you submit your claim and this applies to everyone. Assessment periods last for 30 days each month and at the end of that period you will receive your statement. On that it will tell you all the elements you're entitled to, as well as any deductions (if applicable) and for those migrating across it will also tell you what your Transitional Protection is, if entitled.