Moving in with a partner and uc/pip

daniel-2412

Good afternoon all, i was hoping for some advice, sometime soon i am planning on moving in with my partner, she is not on benefits and gets a good wage. i am on high rate pip and universal credit. i know when we move in together i will lose my universal credit but at what point do i tell them that we are moving in? and when would my last payment be? i don't want to claim more than i should and equally i don't want to pay back a massive sum that i will not be able to afford. i am classed as severally mentally disabled and have been told i should not work. i don't think i am entitled to any other form of benefit so will just receive pip.  i also don't know if this is true but i was told that there is some form of period of grace or "trial period of living together" before you lose your uc, seems weird to me but is this true? this is really my reason for asking as i am not sure the order of things? also as my partner does not get uc and would not be entitled to it would i still have to do this joint uc application i have read that you are supposed to do when you move in with someone? it took me ages to get on the right level of uc and pip as i had to go through a tribunal and i am currently waiting for my renewal of pip as it ran out at the beginning of the month i am really hoping that if i move in with my partner that this doesn't mean that i will have to start all over again as i was told that any change could cause this. Nothing else has changed at all. Thank you all in advance for any help i appreciate it.

Spoonie_Turtle

There is no trial period, you tell them on the day you move in together.  At the end of that assessment period if there's no entitlement to UC you'll just get nil, and after six consecutive assessment periods of no entitlement your claim will close.  (Unless your partner has savings or capital of more than £16,000, then I think the claim will close straight away.)

What you can do is apply for ESA before you move in together; you'll presumably not get any payments if I'm correct in inferring you've not worked in the last two tax years but you'll still get National Insurance credits (and retain your LCWRA status, I think). 
It's important to do this while you're still claiming UC as your LCWRA status will mean you don't need another assessment.  If you do it after you're no longer entitled to UC then you'd need to be assessed again even though you're only claiming the NI credits.

Edit: PIP would not be affected, you'd just need to tell them about any change of address, if applicable.

daniel-2412

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it