Permitted work on UC or similar for a partner?

MartBear

Ok, current situation. Wife is disabled, I have physical and mental health issues. I am my wife's carer. We claim ESA, she is the main claimant. For 5 years I got nothing towards my pension, despite being told I would, because apparently that's not paid to the partner. I became her carer, it is now paid in.

My wife was told she could work 16 hours a week, for a year, without losing out on anything. She did for 4 months, then became too ill to work. I asked if could work, as there was a 6 hour job at our local shop, and guy told I'd lose benefits if I did it, and the amount I earned would be taken from our ESA payment. Being a partner on ESA is !!!!!!, it's like you dont exist, you need permission from your partner to even have a meeting with the DWP about your own circumstances, and you get none of the help that the main claimant does. But now we're being forced on to UC within 6 weeks.

I don't know how universal credit works all that well, and looking anything up regarding work just states that you can work as much as you like and still claim, if you're under a pay threshold. 

Well I've been offered a job. 12 hrs a week, minimum wage. I can just about manage it with my condition (boss is flexible as it's a charity shop) and would do it 3 days a week, 4 hrs a time, when my wife is having her morning rest after medication. 

But is it allowed as permitted work? As a partner can I do it, or is it going to !!!!!! everything up? If it is allowed, what would it do to or universal credit payments? I can't do much, but would really like to be able to do a few hours work, see how well it goes for a while and see if I can slowly increase it (I very much doubt I'd get past 5 days of 4hrs due to my own health and being a carer)

I've wanted to ask the DWP, but having gone on to the job centre and been turned away because they couldn't talk without my wife present, and then having no one available to talk to when I did go with her last week, I've looked it up myself and as stated just find things which say how much you can work and still get some payments. But I want to know what we stand to lose. 

There's no real point in me risking my health to work 12 hours for £135 or whatever, if I lose my free NHS, or if we lose £135 straight from our payments. 

This is really the only type of job suitable for me, and yes rare to get the hours I want, and with a shop and staff I know having volunteered with them for a short while for a couple hours twice a week. I really want to get back into doing some work, but ESA felt like we'd been punished if I did it, and I'm just hoping I guess, that UC is different. 

Can anyone offer help, or a small breakdown or what it will effect? 

Thanks so much for any help

Spoonie_Turtle

MartBear said:

I don't know how universal credit works all that well, and looking anything up regarding work just states that you can work as much as you like and still claim, if you're under a pay threshold. 

This is correct.  You can earn up to the point that would wipe out any UC entitlement before no longer being entitled to any UC, and no limits on hours.

As your wife has LCW or LCWRA (depending on which ESA group she is in), you'll have a work allowance on your claim which is a certain amount of earnings they disregard before making deduction of 55% of anything you earn above that.
If you claim help with rent, the work allowance is £404 per month.
If you don't claim help with housing costs, the work allowance is £673 per month.

https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/how-your-wages-affect-your-payments

I don't know how a partner working affects ESA, but it'd probably be safer to claim UC before the day you start work, to make sure you don't lose any ESA and the continuity of claim for migrating to UC.

poppy12345

When you're not the main claimant of the ESA claim there's only a £20/week disregard when a partner works. After this the ESA is deducted £1 for £1. If any part of their ESA is contributions based, this isn't affected by a partners earnings. 

MartBear

Spoonie_Turtle said:

MartBear said:

I don't know how universal credit works all that well, and looking anything up regarding work just states that you can work as much as you like and still claim, if you're under a pay threshold. 

This is correct.  You can earn up to the point that would wipe out any UC entitlement before no longer being entitled to any UC, and no limits on hours.

As your wife has LCW or LCWRA (depending on which ESA group she is in), you'll have a work allowance on your claim which is a certain amount of earnings they disregard before making deduction of 55% of anything you earn above that.
If you claim help with rent, the work allowance is £404 per month.
If you don't claim help with housing costs, the work allowance is £673 per month

I don't know how a partner working affects ESA, but it'd probably be safer to claim UC before the day you start work, to make sure you don't lose any ESA and the continuity of claim for migrating to UC.

Does this apply to the household then? Not just the main claimant? If it's household it's great. We do claim rent allowance, so it would be £404 for us. Leaving roughly £100 earnings over the threshold to be reduced, but it should still make us better off, and definitely worth trying it as a starting point

Spoonie_Turtle

I don't think there is a 'main claimant' on UC, it's technically two claims linked together to form a joint claim so everything financial applies to you both (and you both get NI credits).

NedS

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I don't think there is a 'main claimant' on UC, it's technically two claims linked together to form a joint claim so everything financial applies to you both (and you both get NI credits).

That's correct, it's technically two single claims that have been joined to make a couple claim when the claimant(s) declare they have a partner (so very different to treatment of couples under legacy benefits such as ESA/JSA etc).