Moving over to uc from esa

steve1

hi I’ve recently moved over from esa to ice. But are money has dropped nearly £300. I’m on a pension and my wife is a lot younger. We have two kids at school and my wife is my carrier is this normal

steve1

sorry it’s meant to say UC not ice

poppy123456

More information is needed to be able to advise you. You mention a pension, is that state pension? Or a different pension?

When you were claiming ESA which group were you in, Support Group or WRAG? If Support Group does your UC include the LCWRA element?

You said your wife is your carrier, do you mean carer? If you're claiming a disability benefit such as PIP daily living or DLA mid/high rate care does she claim carers allowance for looking after you? Does your UC also include the carers element?

Sorry for all the questions but can't advise correctly without all those answers.

steve1

hi poppy. Sorry. I was in the support group. Yes I do get LCWRA. It was meant to say career. I’m on pip mid range. Yes is is caring for me. She is getting carers element. I’m on state pension but they are deducted all of it from my wife .

poppy123456

Thank you. Yes, state pension is always deducted in full from UC, same applies to carers allowance, as I’m assuming she’s claiming that too.

I wouldn’t expect you to be £300 worse off than you were when claiming ESA. Have you included your state pension in that figure?

UC as a mixed aged couple will never be great because your state pension is deducted in full.

What ages are your children and do you claim for help with the rent? Is your pension the full state pension of £221.20/week?

I would happily do a calculation of UC and a comparison for when you were claiming ESA if you could give me that extra information.

I will totally understand if you don’t want to give that information and would advise you to get some advice from an agency near you.

steve1

hi . Thanks. Yes full state £208.86. 3years and 9 years yes they are paying rent.

steve1

£268.42. A week Wife before change over in total. Me £245.80 a week now. £368.48 in total

steve1

hi. My wife has had another look and it seems that it is short on the children’s side my wife was getting children tx £1073.68 a month. My wife is getting £621.25 a month

poppy123456

£208.86/ week is not full state pension. This would be £221.20/week is full state pension.

It’s very difficult to advise without knowing all of your exact details. There’s a lot of information missing.

Your UC should include the following..

Standard allowance couples £617.60

LCWRA element £416.19

Child element.. if the eldest was born before 6th April 2017 it should be £621.25. Or £575.84 if both were born after that date.

Carers element £198.31 carers element.

Housing element? Can’t advise on that because I don’t know how much you’re entitled to.

There would also be extra if either of your children claim a disability benefit.

Your state pension and carers allowance is deducted in full.

I’m going to advise you to contact an advice agency near you. This way you can show them your UC statement and tell them all of your details for yourself, wife and children. They can then advise you accordingly.

poppy123456

Just to also point out that you seem to be forgetting that you also need to include your state pension and your wife’s carers allowance in with your total weekly income. Not just the UC amount.

Jimm_Scope

Hi @steve1, welcome to the community, I hope we can help figure out what's happened with your income!

I can see Poppy has already started, if you're okay answering some of the questions so we can better know your situation I hope we can help.

I've also moved this over to our Universal Credit category.

steve1

hi. Thank you. We don’t understand it. It’s just a lot of money to lose and is making it very difficult for us.

poppy123456

You may not be losing anything because it seems like to me that you’re not taking into consideration your state pension weekly amount in your figures. As well as the carers allowance your wife is claiming. It’s impossible to give further advice without more information. There’s some questions I asked which you didn’t answer.

Knowing what elements are included for your UC and the exact amounts will help more for me to advise.

Also are either of your children claiming any disability benefits such as PIP or DLA.

I’m happy to advise but drip feeding information doesn’t help.