Universal Credit as a disabled couple.

Jij2l

Hi, i was wondering if anyone could help. My partner and I are both disabled on UC, both with LCWRA and both under 25. I was wondering if there was anything more we could do to get help. we get the couples rate with housing and one payment of LCWRA, she gets pip and its just not enough to live off. Every month there's a few hundred pounds worth of shortfall, we can't afford to buy food half the month or pay all our bills. our electric bill keeps skyrocketing up since we are mostly housebound.

I've spoken to debt charities and they can't help after doing the expenditure they say "your around £500 short per month and there's nothing you can cut back on, there's nothing we can do, sorry"

I feel so hopeless and exhausted, we just can't afford to live and i can't do this anymore.

please any help will be greatly appreciated, i'm at my wits end and i just can't think anymore.

poppy123456

If her PIP includes the daily living part and you look after her for at least 35 hours per week does your UC include the carers element? (assuming no one else claims this or carer allowance for looking after her)

When claiming UC as a couple even though you both been found to have LCWRA then you can only receive 1 payment per claim. Therefore the person that isn't receiving the LCWRA element can claim carers element. This will then give your maximum UC entitlement.

Are you privately renting or renting from social housing? If privately renting does your UC include housing element for 1 bedroom?

I'm assuming you're not responsible for any children?

Are you claiming council tax reduction? It's not part of UC and needs to be claimed separately.

Have you looked to see if you maybe entitled to PIP yourself? (assuming you're not living in Scotland)

Jij2l

poppy123456 said:

If her PIP includes the daily living part and you look after her for at least 35 hours per week does your UC include the carers element? (assuming no one else claims this or carer allowance for looking after her)

When claiming UC as a couple even though you both been found to have LCWRA then you can only receive 1 payment per claim. Therefore the person that isn't receiving the LCWRA element can claim carers element. This will then give your maximum UC entitlement.

Are you privately renting or renting from social housing? If privately renting does your UC include housing element for 1 bedroom?

I'm assuming you're not responsible for any children?

Are you claiming council tax reduction? It's not part of UC and needs to be claimed separately.

Have you looked to see if you maybe entitled to PIP yourself? (assuming you're not living in Scotland)

It doesn't include the carers element, nobody else is claiming it but the job centre said that you can't claim it if you are both assessed as awarded LCWRA. We both have LCWRA but only one payment is made obviously but we both technically are classed as that.

We are privately renting, we get the 2 bedroom rate due to medically being unable to share a room. Our full rental amount is the max of the rate.

We do not have any children.

We do get council tax reduction, Technically we get a full reduction but there was an error last year which meant they wanted £500 for the year but we didn't find that out from them until they sent us court summons but £500 is more than we can afford.

I tried to do a pip claim myself in 2019, i didn't have any help or support. i went to a dodgy assessment centre who wrote the opposite of everything that happened making it out like i was 100% perfectly well. They even offered everyone else a drink accept for me, i turned up on time and they were 40 minutes late and they wouldn't let my partner in with me even though she's always there to see me and i struggle and need assistance with things. 

i asked for mandatory reconsideration and it was then put to tribunal who then wanted my medical records and other proof. During that time covid happened and my doctors stopped writing medical reports. by the time they finally wrote it was 1 week after the tribunal ended. That took 2 years of my life and caused so much mental anguish.

bg844

@Jij2l The Job Centre are incorrect, Carer’s Element can be claimed in the instance of a joint claim where 2 people have been awarded LCWRA. You should do a change of circumstances on this and ask for it to be backdated via leaving a message under the ‘payments’ category, just explain that incorrect advice given means you was told you weren’t eligible when in fact you are. They may or may not refuse to backdate but it’s definitely worth asking.

Jij2l

bg844 said:

@Jij2l The Job Centre are incorrect, Carer’s Element can be claimed in the instance of a joint claim where 2 people have been awarded LCWRA. You should do a change of circumstances on this and ask for it to be backdated via leaving a message under the ‘payments’ category, just explain that incorrect advice given means you was told you weren’t eligible when in fact you are. They may or may not refuse to backdate but it’s definitely worth asking.

I've done what you said, sent them a message 3 days ago, waiting for a reply, could take a month or two just for someone to reply, thank you, i hope this works and they actually do something!

Biblioklept

Did you report being a carer ever @jij21? 

Jij2l

Biblioklept said:

Did you report being a carer ever @jij21? 

@Biblioklept When making our join claim it asked if either of us cares for someone and i said yes, i care for her

Jij2l

So on the 19th of August i messaged them this.

Hi, i’ve just been told that we are eligible for one of us to claim the carers element for UC as well as LCWRA and that it can be backdated but the job centre told us other wise when we were setting up the joint claim yet that is incorrect.

Today i finally got a response from them (11 days later) saying this;

Yes you can have both on the claim if the person caring is not the one receiving LCWRA. The person caring must also be either in receipt of Carers Allowance or the person they're caring for has to be in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

Kind Regards.

Jij2l

I don't know what to respond to that, We both have LCWRA but a post earlier said that didn't matter, i don't know what to do next! They just said the same thing the job centre originally said. Does that mean the job centre wasn't wrong?

Jij2l

Should i try to get them to change me from LCWRA to LCW, what would that entail? What effect would that cause? Would i have to start seeing a work coach? would i have to try get a job even though i am unable? I'm so confused, nothing makes any sense!

chiarieds

Hi & no, nothing changes, apart from the fact you can get the carer's element added. As poppy said above, 'When claiming UC as a couple even though you both been found to have LCWRA then you can only receive 1 [LCWRA] payment per claim. Therefore the person that isn't receiving the LCWRA element can claim carers element. This will then give your maximum UC entitlement. '

So one of you can claim the carer's element which would be additional to the LCWRA element you already receive. Does that now make sense?

The message you received confirmed this tho was not perhaps best worded. It means 'Yes, you can have both (LCWRA element and carer's element) on the claim if the person caring is not the one receiving LCWRA'......just as poppy said & the Jobcentre remain incorrect!

Jij2l

chiarieds said:

Hi & no, nothing changes, apart from the fact you can get the carer's element added. As poppy said above, 'When claiming UC as a couple even though you both been found to have LCWRA then you can only receive 1 [LCWRA] payment per claim. Therefore the person that isn't receiving the LCWRA element can claim carers element. This will then give your maximum UC entitlement. '

So one of you can claim the carer's element which would be additional to the LCWRA element you already receive. Does that now make sense?

The message you received confirmed this tho was not perhaps best worded. It means 'Yes, you can have both (LCWRA element and carer's element) on the claim if the person caring is not the one receiving LCWRA'......just as poppy said & the Jobcentre remain incorrect!

@chiarieds How do i know which one of us is the one getting the LCWRA award, we were given the awards in single claims in the past that carried on to our current claim 

Jij2l

There is no awarding letter or anything. When we merged our 2 separate claims together when we moved in we were both getting UC with LCWRA, then once merging we haven't got any other letters showing any other awards or what we get in our claim, we only got the cost of living letters and when they owe us money for underpaying us for something.

Any awarding letters that we would have had in the past on single claims have vanished when our accounts got joined, we can't see anything from before then.

Jij2l

Logically from what you've all said, She needs to be the one with the LCWRA award since she gets PiP so i can claim the carers element but what if I we both are still found to have the award, or what If i have been given the award instead, i dont have pip.

As i'm sure we all know, UC is very good at mucking things up so it wouldn't surprise me that the system still says we BOTH have the award even though it shouldn't be possible.

chiarieds

You would claim the carer's element if your partner's PIP includes an award of the daily living component.

You would still get the LCWRA element with your joint claim.

Jij2l

chiarieds said:

You would claim the carer's element if your partner's PIP includes an award of the daily living component.

You would still get the LCWRA element with your joint claim.

@chiarieds I don't mean The claim's LCWRA would be affected, I mean the issue may be that we both individually have the award under our names. So where you said " on the claim if the person caring is not the one receiving LCWRA" We may both be "The one receiving LCWRA" Shouldn't be possible as it should be awarded to one person in the couple but it is awarded to both of us.

poppy123456

This is being made more complicated than it should be. Yes, you've both been found to have LCWRA but this doesn't prevent one of you claiming carers element, while the other claims LCWRA element. You can only claim one LCWRA element on your claim, even though both have been found to have it.

As it's your wife that's claiming PIP then it would be you that needs to claim CE.

Jij2l said:

Today i finally got a response from them (11 days later) saying this;

Yes you can have both on the claim if the person caring is not the one receiving LCWRA. The person caring must also be either in receipt of Carers Allowance or the person they're caring for has to be in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

Kind Regards.

Part of this message here sounds correct to me. Just because you've both been found to have LCWRA it doesn't mean you're both receiving the extra money for that element.

What isn't correct about that message is that you do not need to be claiming carers allowance to be entitled to carers element.

chiarieds

Have a look at this link: https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Carers-with-limited-capability-for-work-Universal-Credit

which says, 'when you are both eligible for the LCWRA element and the Carer element. Only one member of the couple can receive the LCWRA element but the other member will get the Carer element instead.'

Jij2l

chiarieds said:

Have a look at this link: https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Carers-with-limited-capability-for-work-Universal-Credit

which says, 'when you are both eligible for the LCWRA element and the Carer element. Only one member of the couple can receive the LCWRA element but the other member will get the Carer element instead.'

Yes, i saw that before setting up our joint claim. What i don't understand is why it hasn't happened yet, this is what the issue is. 

By what you're all saying we meet the demands to receive it, We asked for it in june 2022 when setting up the claim. We don't have it and were told then its because we both have the LCWRA award each and I would have to be reassessed to LCW instead.

So basically what the issue seems to be then is we both have the award, meaning i can't claim until my award is stripped.

Because we can both be awarded LCWRA but it can only be paid for one of those awards in a joint claim.

2 awards are allowed, but only 1 element.

poppy123456

Jij2l said:

 We don't have it and were told then its because we both have the LCWRA award each and I would have to be reassessed to LCW instead.

So basically what the issue seems to be then is we both have the award, meaning i can't claim until my award is stripped.

That's nonesense and not correct at all. There's many couples that are both found to have LCWRA but they only receive 1 element. The other person then claims carers element.

You do not need to be reassessed and found to have LCW before carers element can be paid.

Jij2l

poppy123456 said:

Jij2l said:

 We don't have it and were told then its because we both have the LCWRA award each and I would have to be reassessed to LCW instead.

So basically what the issue seems to be then is we both have the award, meaning i can't claim until my award is stripped.

That's nonesense and not correct at all. There's many couples that are both found to have LCWRA but they only receive 1 element. The other person then claims carers element.

You do not need to be reassessed and found to have LCW before carers element can be paid.

I found Entitledto states this:



What does it mean "Whichever element is the highest"?