question on LCWRA

Yorin582

hello, my partner is entitled to LCWRA payments but I have a question related to the amount she gets paid. when I marry her and have a stable job, will her LCWRA pay get affected? or will it stay the same? what happens after we have children too, does any change happen to her LCWRA pay? thank you.

Albus_Scope

HI @Yorin582 and welcome to the community.  How are you today?

 Universal credit is means tested, so when you live with your partner, any income from the household will count towards the UC payments I believe?  For every pound earned, UC will be reduced by 55p. 

Yorin582

I see. my partner is disabled are there not any other benefits she could claim? incase that she doesn't get paid by LCWRA again

Albus_Scope

Is she claiming PIP (personal independence payment) that's usually very useful for disabled folk. 

Yorin582

I don't think she claims PIP, but that sounds interesting. is it affected by house income? or is it always stable for my partner

Albus_Scope

PIP is not means tested and can be claimed even when working. There's information on PIP here which is worth a read though.  

Yorin582

thank you very much, appreciate it

poppy123456

Albus_Scope said:

HI @Yorin582 and welcome to the community.  How are you today?

 Universal credit is means tested, so when you live with your partner, any income from the household will count towards the UC payments I believe?  For every pound earned, UC will be reduced by 55p. 

It's not the household itself. It will be partners. Other members of the household such as older children, grandparents etc do not affect the amount you're entitled to. Unless you're claiming for help with any rent and then there maybe a non dependant deduction. 

There will also be a work allowance applied to the claim. This means that a certain amount of earnings can be received each month before the earnings taper of 55% applies. 

If Yorin claims for help with the rent the work allowance will be £379/month, if they don't then it will be £631/month. More info here. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-earnings

Yorin582 said:

hello, my partner is entitled to LCWRA payments but I have a question related to the amount she gets paid. when I marry her and have a stable job, will her LCWRA pay get affected? or will it stay the same? what happens after we have children too, does any change happen to her LCWRA pay? thank you.

LCWRA is part of UC. Entitlement will depend on your joint circumstances. Any earnings received each monthly assessment period that's above the work allowance mentioned above will reduce your whole UC entitlement, not just part of it.

You can use a benefits calculator to check entitlement. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/benefits-calculator

Yorin582

is work allowance something separate from my job salary? so for example say I earn 1500 per month would the work allowance be alone as in I would earn 1879?

poppy123456

Yorin582 said:

is work allowance something separate from my job salary? so for example say I earn 1500 per month would the work allowance be alone as in I would earn 1879?

No, that’s not what it means. Have you read the link I posted above about the work allowance? It explains exactly what it is. 

As I advised, it’s earnings that are disregarded before the 55% deductions apply. 

For example, if you claim for help with the rent they your work allowance will be £379/month. Which means with earnings of £1,500/month then £1,121 of earnings would be affected by the deductions. £1,121 x 0.55 = £616.55 deductions for your UC. 

If you don’t claim for help with the rent then £631/month is disregarded. 

One other thing to point out, getting married makes no difference to her UC. Living together will and you will need to claim as a couple. If you have children then you’ll be entitled to extra UC for each child, up to a maximum of 2 children. 

Yorin582

I see, thank you for clarifying. how much would the UC be for each child?

poppy123456

At the moment for a child born after 2017 then it's £269.58/month. This will of course increase when benefits increase, usually in April. Do you have children now with your partner? If not then i would cross that path when you come to it.

Yorin582

alright thank you very much man, I really appreciate all the info you've given me. that should be everything I needed to hear

Drewski99

Hi my wife and myself are in the process of migrating to uc from tax credits. I have received contribution saved ESA for over a decade due to long term health issues also because our savings were above the threshold for income based ESA.
 The contribution based ESA is paid into my current account and the tax credits were paid into my wife's current account.
 I have been informed that as i am in a support group I do not need to provide a fit note and on my journal it say's I have already been awarded the LCWRA.
 Does this replace my contribution based ESA or is this separate from the ESA as it pays approximately £15 a week less then the ESA or is this LCWRA part of the tax credit and nothing to do with my ESA payment.
Any help on this matter would be greatly Appreciated

poppy123456

Drewski99 said:

Hi my wife and myself are in the process of migrating to uc from tax credits. I have received contribution saved ESA for over a decade due to long term health issues also because our savings were above the threshold for income based ESA.
 The contribution based ESA is paid into my current account and the tax credits were paid into my wife's current account.
 I have been informed that as i am in a support group I do not need to provide a fit note and on my journal it say's I have already been awarded the LCWRA.
 Does this replace my contribution based ESA or is this separate from the ESA as it pays approximately £15 a week less then the ESA or is this LCWRA part of the tax credit and nothing to do with my ESA payment.
Any help on this matter would be greatly Appreciated

ESA and UC are 2 completely different benefits. Your ESA will continue as normal but it will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

UC is one benefit made up of many different elements. Your UC will include the standard couples allowance and the LCWRA element, plus any other elements you're entitled to.

The LCWRA element is the same as the Support Group. The standard allowance and the LCWRA element is the same as your ESA. For those in the Support Group, (without SDP) UC with the LCWRA element pays more than ESA Support Group.

There's no elements that replace the Tax credits because Tax credits no longer exist.

Drewski99

Thanks for the help it haad me completely confused but maybes that's part of there heinous plan muahahahaaha

poppy123456

You’re welcome. UC is the most confusing benefit of them all. It took me many years to get my head around it and learn the knowledge I have.

I’m still learning but it’s a little easier to advise now because of managing my daughter’s UC claim.