Universal Credit on top of SSP/ how to survive?

Hawthorn14

Hi,
has anyone any insight or experience into initiating a universal credit claim to help cover rent and housing costs once off sick from an employer and only on statutory sick pay?
Can this be applied immediately on going on sick leave, after the last full pay cheque? 
Has anyone had success in receiving more than just SSP to live on while on sick leave of as yet unknown duration?
Is it possible? Seems very hard to find out in avance. This is for a single person, no property, savings etc, SSP won't cover rent obviously, sick leave is for stress which is work related- residential childcare worker on random 25 hour shifts. Return to work under financial pressure will only exacerbate things but has literally only gone off sick today and is now very stressed about whether will lose housing if staying off for more than a couple of days, so any advice is welcome! 
TIA

tomtom256

It all depends on how much sick pay you get, as any award will still be caclulated using the earnings taper.

poppy12345

Put your details into this. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/benefits-calculator/

Hawthorn14

tomtom256 said:

It all depends on how much sick pay you get, as any award will still be caclulated using the earnings taper.

Statutory Sick Pat standard rate of £116 PW. Thank you 

Hawthorn14

poppy12345 said:

Put your details into this.

Have done that, and spoken to citizens advice but it's very hard to get any clear info or timeline in order to make a decision whether it's actually viable to stay off work long enough to recover

Rubyroobs

It takes roughly five weeks for a first UC payment. The award will include a standard single element and a rent element and then SSP will reduce the total of those two elements on a taper. Rent element if private renting is dictated by local housing allowance rates.

poppy12345

If you're going to be off work long term when you claim UC you should report your health condition and provide a fit note within 7 days. You will then be referred for a work capability assessment, usually from around 29 days of your claim. 

As you will not be entitled to the work allowance unless the decision on the WCA is either LCW or LCWRA then your earnings (including SSP) will reduce your UC entitlement by 55p for every £1 of earnings received each month. 

Hawthorn14

Rubyroobs said:

It takes roughly five weeks for a first UC payment. The award will include a standard single element and a rent element and then SSP will reduce the total of those two elements on a taper. Rent element if private renting is dictated by local housing allowance rates.

Many thanks. Do you know if the payments are backdated to cover the time you stop working, or are calculated from when they start, and if they still come through if you're only off for a limited time, please? e.g. if you're off work for 6 weeks, and payments come through after roughly five, do you get then UC to cover those 6 weeks (minus any SSP ) if the assessment is made after a month of being off, or do they begin from those 5 weeks and then immediately stop if you go back to work, please? 

Spoonie_Turtle

Hawthorn14 said:

Rubyroobs said:

It takes roughly five weeks for a first UC payment. The award will include a standard single element and a rent element and then SSP will reduce the total of those two elements on a taper. Rent element if private renting is dictated by local housing allowance rates.

Many thanks. Do you know if the payments are backdated to cover the time you stop working, or are calculated from when they start, and if they still come through if you're only off for a limited time, please? e.g. if you're off work for 6 weeks, and payments come through after roughly five, do you get then UC to cover those 6 weeks (minus any SSP ) if the assessment is made after a month of being off, or do they begin from those 5 weeks and then immediately stop if you go back to work, please? 

For UC you start the claim, then the calendar month from that date is your assessment period.  The first payment is for that first month.  Then you'll get monthly payments thereafter, until/unless your circumstances change that you're no longer eligible for UC (e.g. your income increases so high as to leave no UC entitlement, or you come into a lump sum which cause your savings to exceed £16,000, or you move in with a partner whose earnings or savings are too high to leave any UC payable).

It's not like JSA.

Your UC is worked out based on actual money received during that monthly assessment period.  So if you went back to work in one monthly assessment period but didn't get paid until the next, your higher wages wouldn't affect UC until the assessment period in which they're actually paid.

So you can actually claim UC whenever you like, but if your full wages are too high to leave any UC payable then it is best to wait until you've had the last lot of full wages from before going off sick.

For the benefits calculator, you should do different sums - put in your monthly 'earnings' as if on full SSP, put then in as if on full wages, and then anything in between with different proportions (e.g. 1 / 2 / 3 weeks of full wage with 3 / 2 / 1 week of SSP).  But doing the calculation as if just on SSP monthly will show you the worst case scenario.