Hello

Comein119

Hello to all forumites a 60 year old male here and although not registered disabled still managing to work on a reduced part time basis even though I am starting to crumble rapidly lol. If my good doctor can prop me up for another seven years I will be very happy. I have joined to see what is available assistance wise and the criteria needed to comply as my salary is rather poor . Just joined the new benefit called U.C three months ago and I have just been invited to go on a UC 50 exam and wondering what to expect. Will have a good look around the forum for snippets of advice as their is quite a lot of reading material available.

Anyway thanks for listening and I hope your all enjoying our present spell of drop dead gorgeous weather and long may it continue. Adios.

steve51

Hi @Comein119

Good Evening & Welcome ??

I am one of a number of Community Champion’s here at Scope.

We have a lot of Benefit Advice on our site & in our community.

I would be more than happy in helping you with these if required??

@steve51

Ails

Hi @Comein119 and Welcome to the Community.  It is nice to meet you and thank you for introducing yourself.  Yes, the weather is fab!    Please let us know if there is anything we can help you with. 

Comein119

Thank you @steve51 and @Ails for your kind replies. Have had a really good look around the forum and definitely a mine of information available but reading it is one thing and ingesting another  : /  Another comment I would make is the level of difficulty claimants seem to be experiencing with the authorities who run these benefits and the stringent requirements to qualify and in a lot of cases a lack of empathy as claimants appear to fall through the net and that is what as a tax payer I envisaged our care system was originally built for as a safety net in times of difficulty.

Been lucky never to having claimed in the past but father time is having his wicked way and I am now slowing down.My general tale in compressed format is that I have nearly always been the breadwinner and my wife the homemaker and a winning team if ever I saw one . She has Osteo arthritis in her hands fingers back neck knees and also suffers from sciatica lumbago .Usual meds of tramadol 400mg a day and amitrip and naprox etc etc. She has never claimed benefits for her condition.

For me its a similar combo that has made me reduce my hours as I really need to work but now struggle with full time. I have Asthma arthritus of the shoulder with limited movement and also my knee arthritic and suffer from lumbago which at times can knock the stuffing out of me. So I asked for help and was told to claim universal as a joint couple. We did so and have submitted fit notes and three months later they have now said we have to go on a UC 50 exam. Currently getting around £200 a month for us both UC with a £60 deduction for a loan because they never gave us nothing for 7 weeks but no problems and all good.

So my question is this.... What is the purpose of going on this UC 50 exam as we currently send in fit notes from a qualified GP and also even if we get assigned LCW low rate I am under the impression we will not get any extra help or payment as this stopped in 2017 ?  I guess if I fail the test then as I am working presumably they will ask me to up my game to full time but to what level do they class as full time ?  Is it 30 35 37 hours or 40 hours. I currently work 24 hours. If my wife fails and listening to some of the sorry tales off here then why not ..will she then have to sign on as capable for work so we still get help from the U.C even though I work part time.

Complicated is not the word but I guess the worst case scenario is that I have to up my end game and try my hardest to work full time again but I am really struggling doing 24 hours now due to pain. The wife is more restricted than me so taking a job for her will be next to impossible and anyway I would sooner not get any help than see her suffer. Her fingers are a mess with osteo and she is 59. I read the test for UC50 says if she can put an object in her pocket reach and grab something pick up half a litre or move from one seat to another then she is very much good to go ..Good grief and that defines an ability to work ???

Thanks for listening and for some of these benefits require nothing short of a degree to evaluate. Adios.

Ails

You are welcome @Comein119.  Glad you have managed to look at some of the information available here.  I hope you will find it useful. 

steve51

Hi @Comein119

“Welcome it’s great to meet you today”

Thank you very much for your info/post.

Yes we all need to jump through hoops to get anything nowadays.

 Please please let me let me know if you have any probs getting around ???

@steve51

Adrian_Scope

Hello @Comein119 and welcome to the community. I'm really sorry, your post seems to have slipped beneath my radar. 

Have you had your assessment for LCW on Universal Credit yet? Hope you're getting on okay.

Comein119

Test.

Comein119

Adrian_Scope said:

Hello @Comein119 and welcome to the community. I'm really sorry, your post seems to have slipped beneath my radar. 

Have you had your assessment for LCW on Universal Credit yet? Hope you're getting on okay.

Hello Adrian and hello community. Just a quick update in the hope this post may be of assistance to other forum users starting a new claim for U.C. The powers that be arranged for my wife and I to attend the U.C 50 examination and after speaking with an assistant to change an appointment date they actually asked why I was attending the exam as I currently work 24 hours. The advisor said it was not at all necessary for me to attend because I was working to the best of my ability and so my U.C 50 was cancelled down. My wife still had to attend and was awarded the rate where she did not have to look for work which qualified her for a £336 monthly assistance. As an anecdote this also qualified a working partner an extra allowance of £287 offset against net earnings so a massive help for myself who needs to keep plodding on until retirement. If anyone is concerned about the meeting for U.C 50 then just inform them of how your disability affects you and give the assessor as much information as humanly possible. I attended with my wife for help and support and found the staff to be polite caring and understanding of our needs and not at all like the horror stories I hear about with the PIP assessors and staff but I imagine they are employed to reduce applications of PIP to a minimum in order to be accountable for their own existence. I would like to think that is not the case and call me a cynic but after hearing stories about the Capita /Acos staff and how they conduct themselves it does not make for good reading. Not too sure I want to put my good lady wife through this further ordeal so we will probably not bother claiming this PIP benefit. Just a quick question if I may concerning the Carers element of U.C payable at £160 per month. It says it's available for someone if they care for a severely disabled person for more than 35 hours which I do but what is the definition of severely disabled and does the wife's entitlement to an award for U.C limited capability and work related actually define this and if not then what is the definition ? Thanks for listening and take care:

Adrian_Scope

Hello @Comein119. 
Sorry I've only just spotted your reply and query.

For the carer element of Universal Credit, your wife would need to be in receipt of PIP (any rate of the daily living component). Unfortunately, even though you care for her for more than the required hours, because she's not in receipt of PIP you sadly won't be entitled to the carer element. For this reason, it might be worth your wife considering applying for PIP. It would also mean that with the carer element you wouldn't be obligated to work at all, so if your health continued to decline, or you needed to reduce your hours further, you could do this without worrying about Universal Credit expecting you to look for more work.