An end of the Universal Credit claim.

brian1971

I discovered, after much research trawling through the internet, that my monthly State Pension of £921.00 would result in the whole of this amount being reduced in the UC award. I anticipated that we would only receive perhaps a pittance more in UC if we continued with the claim and therefore thought it best to end it. I would prefer to receive my State Pension from which my rent and other bills will be paid, leaving us with little money tio exist on, rather than perhaps a little more, if any at all, in UC payments.

If, two months ago, I knew what lay ahead I would never have initiated the joint claim. I feel a sense of relief that an end has been made of this nightmare.

The upshot of this gross injustice is that my wife and I will lose £360.48 fortnightly ESA (in my wife’s name) and the housing benefit of £508.00 monthly. A huge financial loss of £1.228.96 monthly. Or £14,747.52 yearly. The managed migration (that should be “forced migration”) to UC will ruin us financially and has has a detrimental effect upon our already precarious health.

I will write to my MP, Age Concern, et al in the hope something can be done about this appalling matter for the benefit of others, particularly the elderly and disabled. My heart goes out to all who find themselves in similar circumstances as my wife and I.

Kimi87

It is not inevitable that your UC award would be zero.

Couples Standard Allowance is £628, £423.27 LCWRA element (the UC equivalent of ESA Support Group) for your wife plus Housing Element of £508 .

That all adds up to an amount in excess of your £917 state pension so there should still be some Universal Credit left in payment after deduction.

You can check my figures by getting some advice on an exact calculation.

brian1971

Thank you Kimi. As I have withdrawn the claim I will leave it at that. Best wishes to you.

brian1971

Kimi87

That is a shame because if you pre decease your wife and she is under state pension age, she will have to make a new application for Universal Credit and go through the medical assessment process again.

Whereas migrating from legacy benefits she would get LCWRA element automatically.

I wish you good luck for the future.

brian1971

Thank you Kimi for your kind words and advice. When I sign in here I do not feel alone. It is such a comfort to me as I am sure it is to many others. It is highly likely that I will pass before my wife as she is eight years younger and I have several serious conditions, one of which renders me incapable of leaving the house. Still, we must all do our best to carry on. With best wishes to you.

brian1971

If I had known that my State Pension was to be calculated in such a way when I first became aware of Universal Credit I would have prepared financially for this time. I was under the wrong impression about my pension, thinking we would exchange our legacy benefits for UC. If I had have carried out some research I would not find myself in this position where we now have to reduce the heating, order cheaper food and make other cuts to try and carry on. It is my own fault for not being more aware of things. We live and learn as they say. Perhaps these few words will serve to help others.

Rachel_Scope

It's all very confusing @brian1971. I'm so sorry you're now worse off financially. Are you managing ok?

brian1971

We will be OK thanks Rachel as we are going to advertise a number of things in the house we don't need. It will create more space and allow me to move around more in my wheelchair. It should not be too long before the Warm Home Discount of £150.00 arrives and we can turn up the heating for December. We are waiting on the £200 heating allowance but have my doubts about it as we got nothing last year. Thank you for your reply as it is good to know there is somebody out there. Best wishes to you.

Rachel_Scope

If you need extra support you can contact our Disability Energy Support team  https://www.scope.org.uk/disability-energy-support They can provide a heated blanket and have lots of other advice and support.

The community is always here when you need us 😊

brian1971

Thank you Rachel. I will contact Disability Energy Support as you suggest.

In retrospect I see how naive I was to accept that transitional protection would preserve our legacy benefits when our joint universal credit claim was made. I now see that such protection, at least in our case, does not exist. My state pension of £921 (£230.25 weekly) appears to have gone over the limit for a universal credit claim, albeit for two people, in this instance. The £300 loss of the fuel allowance last winter pales in comparison to the financial loss my wife and I will suffer. Pensioners were, quite rightly, highly demonstrative and vociferous about it I recall. Yes, the loss of the winter fuel payment, now thankfully reinstated, was a loss to the vulnerable, elderly people, but the loss of legacy benefits is far, far more serious with enormous consequences to come.

Countless thousands of elderly mixed age couples will find themselves in the same unenviable position as my wife and I. These people are in mythoughts and prayers as any amount of financial loss at an advancesage will undoubtedly have serious consequences. I intend writing to my MP this evening and will post again when I receive a reply.

I will phone the bank in the morning and ask for a loan of £1,000. If granted it will give us time to sell some items through the internet.

brian1971

I received a message on my phone today from the DWP. The caller said he would try and call me again, presumably about the joint claim for universal credit and why my state pension precludes my wife and I from obtaining anything like the legacy benefits (including housing benefit) once received. I did everything asked of me after receiving the migration letters and within the required time. If I had delayed the online application by another month we would have remained, at least, for another four weeks on the legacy benefits and housing benefit. If only I had known!

I am the appointee for my son who is severely physically handicapped and has learning difficulties. I entered an online application for his universal credit managed migration. I am fearful that his application will receive the same fate as that of my wife and I.

I managed to get the £1.000 loan from my bank. I think the interest rate is something like 11.9 which is not too bad. The £1,000 at £100 a week to live on will take us to almost the end of January ,after which time we should have sold enough household items to repay the loan. I will advertise on the intenet and expect people to call.

We are getting used to having the heating turned down, which was probably too high in any case.

I explained to my landlord that I arranged for a standing order of £550 monthly to be paid out of my state pension which will leave me with£371.00.

Catherine21

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1083359#Comment_1083359

Ah thats absolutely shocking i feel for you how will you survive on that im so sorry makes me so upset for you labour party are evil all of them

brian1971

Many thanks for you kind concern. Hopefully I can achieve some success by following the wonderful advice I received at this magnificent forum. On Monday I expect to receive a phone call from the DWP. I do not have my mobile phone turned on as I tend to receive nuisance callers and therefore missed the call from the DWP on Friday. As I said in an earlier post I am not too good at completing online application forms. I admit that I made a number of mistakes in completing the online application form, the worst of which was my failing in making a joint claim. I should have contacted citizens advice for assistance and urge others who have difficulties, such as I have, to do so.

brian1971

This evening my wife and I had a good talk about our transition from legacy benefits to Universal Credit.

We decided that if the DWP call on Monday as arranged and it concerns the cancellation of the claim for universal credit I will make itclear there is little to discuss. The call might be about something else of course.

If the call is to do with universal credit I will make it clear that the claim was ended by a tick in a box a few days ago.

Due to the extremely tiresome nature of the repeated question on the journal, the phone calls, a house visit and undoubtedly more and more questions to come we decided enough was enough.

The final straw came a few days ago when I was shocked to read on my journal a highly personal question such as do my wife and I share a bed and if so do you have interrupted sleep. My wife was furious about such aquestion. Goodness knows what the next questions would be about!

We will manage on far less money than on legacy benefits. We will survive.