Budgeting Advance advice needed.

rich_shot2003

We moved across from ESA to UC back in Feb of this year and at the time we was paying back a Budgeting loan we had while on ESA and now we are paying that back via UC.

but we need to ask for a Budgeting Advance with UC as need to buy a new oven as our one has died so what i would like to know is will UC class paying back a old BL while we was on ESA as 1 loan while on UC?

its saying you can only pay back 1 loan at a time while on UC so what i am asking is will they count the old BL loan that we had while on ESA as a loan now we are on UC?

i did send UC a message about trying for a Budgeting Advance and they told me to ring them up so is it all done over the phone now or will they need to send a form out for me to fill in?

Newcad

I think that they will class the carrried over Budgeting Loan from ESA as the 1 loan that you can have.

However I'm not 100% sure because it may be classed as a debt owing to DWP Debt Management rather than as a loan.

When I migrated myself from ESA (Voluntary Migration) I already had a Budgeting Loan from ESA and took a New Claim Advance from UC so for a while I was paying back both.

EDIT- See post below.

The only way for you to find out for sure is to continue with making the application for a Budgeting Advance and see what they say.

Those are usually done over the phone now, or can be done at a jobcentre appointment.
(I have to do Work Focused Interviews and mentioned to my work coach that I was going to phone and apply for one, she did it there and then in less than a minute).

As for the dead cooker, there may be other options:
If you are in Social Housing then try ringing your HA and asking to speak to their welfare team.
Explain that you are LCW/LCWRA and need help to buy a replacement cooker.
They do usually have a fund for such things, and may just surprise you.

When I moved into this flat I was moving from a private rental which had a built in kitchen. So I had no cooker and had already applied for a ESA BL to buy one.
I mentioned that when talking to the HA welfare about my Housing Benefit and she said "Don't do that, as you are on a disability benefit we will get you one out of our welfare budget", and they did.
Someone rang me back and together I picked one off the Argos website which they then purchased and had delivered - it cost me nothing. (You may have to pay someone qualified to connect it up).

KxMx

A grant may be available:

https://grants-search.turn2us.org.uk/

You cannot have two budgeting loans simultaneously, a budgeting loan and a new claim advance are separate things so you can have both in those circumstances. 

huckster

And normally under UC, you cannot take out a budgeting advance until after 6 months of claiming UC.

The ESA budgeting advance will be separate to any UC advance, but when you apply by calling UC helpline, they may decline to provide advance based on amount of deductions being made to pay off amounts including the ESA advance.

Go to the Council you pay Council Tax to. They quite often can help with essential white goods such as ovens.

8dayweek

KxMx said:

A grant may be available:

https://grants-search.turn2us.org.uk/

You cannot have two budgeting loans simultaneously, a budgeting loan and a new claim advance are separate things so you can have both in those circumstances. 

^ This, almost. Your Social Fund Budgeting Loan that you got whilst on ESA will continue to be recovered. 

You can also (subject to meeting the eligibility criteria) get a Budgeting Advance via UC. 

The two can in theory be recovered at the same time - however UC has a maximum overall Deduction rate. 

The UC Budgeting Advance would trump recovery of the SF Budgeting Loan so if there’s not sufficient space within the max recovery amount to take both, then the amount recovered for the SF Budgeting Loan would reduce or stop, until sufficient “space” is freed up to resume recovery or increase the recovery rate back to the originally agreed rate. 

Newcad

KxMx said:

A grant may be available:

https://grants-search.turn2us.org.uk/

You cannot have two budgeting loans simultaneously, a budgeting loan and a new claim advance are separate things so you can have both in those circumstances. 

I've taken a look back at my old UC statements and that is exactly what they say - one is in 'Advance Payments' the old ESA loan is in 'Debts and loan repayments' - which is how I could have both at the same time.

My current Budgeting Advance is also shown as  'Advance Payments':

So I still say that if you cannot get help from a HA welfare team, or grant finance from elsewhere, then it may well be worth asking for a UC Budgeting Advance.

PS. I rarely use my cooker/oven these days, the Air Fryer and Microwave between them cover most cooking I need. (I even bake bread rolls, and cakes/biscuits, in the Air Fryer).