Uc migration worse off but no transitional protection

mandco

I recently migrated to uc which has been a nightmare. Managed to finally get 1 issue sorted but I’ve been told I’m not eligible for anything for my eldest as his college course finished in July and with uc your child entitlement ends on the day they finish. I was on tax credits and on that I was entitled to money for him till the end of August which means from the date he finished close to the date my tax credit for him was due to end ive lost out on 7 weeks payments for him but uc say I’m not entitled to any transitional protection payment even though I’m way worse off.
Also if my entitlement under uc ended when his college course did that was 2 weeks after I applied so surely I should have been entitled to something for him for those weeks?

kaMelo

UC doesn't work on part payments, if you lose or gain entitlement to something within an assessment then you lose or gain it for the entire period whenever it happens.

Any transitional protection you may have qualified for would be calculated only once, the day before migration day, on a notional UC amount based upon your circumstances on that day compared to your tax credit award.

 Changes to your circumstances after this day which reduce the amount you qualify for are unfortunately not covered by transitional protection, even if that change happens in your first assessment period which means your first payment is reduced because of the change.

There is also the difference in how tax credits and UC determine the end date for children in education. Tax credits end the last week of August (I think) whereas UC ends at the course end date.

I think you've just been unfortunate with the timing of migration rather than anything being wrong. 

ETA,

The more I thought about it the more I realised your timing is incredibly unfortunate.

If you could have waited until after your son finished his course but before the end of August, before applying for UC there would not have been a child element for him in your notional UC calculation. Any transitional element would then have included an amount to equal your tax credit award including your son as he was still eligible under tax credit rules.

Going forward, your son would have dropped off your tax credit award at the end of August reducing your award, but now your on UC, there isn't a child element to drop off meaning your UC payments would actually be higher than what you would have been receiving if still on tax credits.

I realise this is of no comfort to you now but it does illustrate, maybe to others, how timings can be crucial.