Universal credit and social care costs

Shortstuff25

My husband and I have recently been migrated from a joint Income Related Employment Support Allowance (IRESA) to a Universal Credit (UC) and New Style Employment Support Allowance (NSESA) combination. We also receive Transitional Protection so no loss of income. The NSESA is in my name and was a suprise as I've only ever worked part time. 

 I have a social care package and pay a monthly care contribution. We informed them of the migration and my care contributions have risen by over £100 per WEEK. The council's figures don't come with any calculations but this increase appears to be as a result of the NSESA being in my name even though for migration purposes it's treated as household income and deducted from Transitional Protection. My questions are:

Would it be better to be on solely UC and close the NSESA claim so all our income is halved? When the NSESA rang to do commitments the woman said you may wish to close this claim and just have UC which I thought odd at the time but not now!

If I do this could the Council claim deprivation of income even though our income is the same it's just all divided by 2 instead of just UC and not NSESA?

Any cons to stopping NSESA? My husband is disabled as well and isn't in a position to work many hours.

As it stands I'd be better of financially cancelling care, living in pjs and giving up work. With all the battles it's tempting...

Rubyroobs

The con of stopping new style ESA is that if for example you inherited or won money over 16k you could still continue to receive New style ESA as it is non means tested.

TimeLord1

 If you close the claim, you might not be able to reclaim it easily in the future. And payments would be monthly.

You need to understand exactly how your council is calculating your increased contributions. Simply removing the NSESA might not solve the problem if their logic is flawed or based on a different interpretation of household income under UC.

So contact your council for a breakdown allowance. All councils have different rules. Ask DWP to see if it's beneficial to close the NSESA 

Also if you stand to inherit down the line NSESA would continue.

Spoonie_Turtle

Do you still work?  If so and you earn above the Lower Earnings Limit for being credited with class 1 NI credits, and are likely to do so until such time as you might need to reclaim NS-ESA, then you would still be able to reclaim it if needed.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions/rates-and-allowances-national-insurance-contributions#class-1-national-insurance-thresholds

Shortstuff25

TimeLord1 said:

 If you close the claim, you might not be able to reclaim it easily in the future. And payments would be monthly.

You need to understand exactly how your council is calculating your increased contributions. Simply removing the NSESA might not solve the problem if their logic is flawed or based on a different interpretation of household income under UC.

So contact your council for a breakdown allowance. All councils have different rules. Ask DWP to see if it's beneficial to close the NSESA 

Also if you stand to inherit down the line NSESA would continue.

Thank you for responding TimeLord1. We have emailed and asked for calculations of their figures especially the UC weekly income figure as we can't fathom how they got to it....even my friend who's an accountant can't get it to tally! Our council's rules are proving very hard to find.