Carer for a 19 year old vulnerable young adult with complex & profound learning disabilities, made to wait 5 weeks for first Universal Credit payment through July & 1st half of August, after being forced to migrate from the Child Tax Credit system by the 24th of July. Almost 20 years in the Child Tax Credit system & never had so much as a week or two of missed payments that weren't always backdated. They say you don't know what you had 'til it's gone. I knew there was a reason I was dreading the inevitable forced migration. After only a single proper payment in August, UC have already decided to throw my son & I under the bus by ending our entitlement to the child & severe disability elements of UC from the 31st of August, wiping out his entitlement for the rest of August and £820 along with it. Claiming that he's no longer a 'qualifying young person', despite being on an approved full-time training course organised by the local adult social services learning disability team. The remainder isn't enough to even cover the utility bills. They don't care. UC's suggestion; take out an advance on son's new claim once identity is confirmed. Simple as that, eh? Why should my son have to pay back money we should've already been paid? What happens when they turn around & say he's not eligible to claim in his own right because he's on a full-time course?
My son's social worker is trying to reassure me that he should bypass the WCA & that they should have already established that he's considered LCWRA out of the gate. But honestly, I'm not feeling very reassured. I've got nightmare visions of it taking months & months to get my son's monthly income up to within £500, or anywhere near parity with what we've lost. Am I just supposed to absorb this loss of income for months on end with rising costs of living? Surely, the previous month's amount & the similar amounts we'd been getting on the legacy benefits systems were what they, the government, had deemed was the minimum they could get away with giving us for his care needs as a child? How can they now realistically expect me to do the same with £800 less & expect something not to give? His care didn't suddenly get any easier or cheaper when the clock struck midnight on the 1st of September!
