Sarah is part of the team at Universal Credit Essentials,
a group of volunteer, work from home benefit experts who give up their time to
help others understand and navigate their Universal Credit claims. Many of the
team have disabilities, are carers or are parents of children with additional
needs.
My health has been deteriorating for the past two years and
a few months after I found myself in a position where I was no longer able to
work, my partner was suddenly made redundant and we made our first claim for Universal
Credit. After everything I’d heard about UC, I was quite frankly terrified. I took
all the advice I could find and did a lot of research (to the extent my partner
was sick of hearing about it!) and wanted to put my knowledge to use. I joined
Universal Credit Essentials as a volunteer at the beginning of this year, I’d
been following the team for a while and I could really relate to the founder’s
story. Just two weeks before Christmas, with no savings, the creator Claire
Sharp, found herself unexpectedly pushed onto UC, she was given wrong
information time and time again which compounded the difficulties she had. Like
many of us, Claire sought advice through social media advice groups. However, she
quickly became frustrated with the amount of inaccurate and conflicting
information being given and vowed to learn all she could about UC, eventually
leading to the creation of UCE. The team quickly grew and we’re now a team of
13 from a variety of backgrounds. The majority of us have either our own
disabilities or care for others who do and in my case, my office is basically
my bed.
Universal Credit can be confusing and we found many members
with inaccurate claims believed their lower awards (and sometimes the loss of
hundreds of pounds!) to be correct and just accepted their lot. At UCE our aim
is to educate and inform. There are many misconceptions about UC which leads to
a lot of worry for people. We believe that if people understand how their claim
is calculated it makes it easier to spot any errors. We teach people how to
manually calculate what their award is and have found that by teaching people
to calculate their award they can make an informed choice about whether to
claim UC or not.
Universal Credit is very different to existing benefits –
known as legacy benefits – and brings together six existing benefits, Job
Seekers Allowance, Employment Support Allowance, Income Support, Housing
Benefit and Child and/or Working Tax Credit. Currently only those who have a
change in circumstances (and need to make a new claim for one of the legacy
benefits being replaced) need to claim UC. But from January 2020, managed
migration starts, and everyone will be transferred at some point in the
following three years.
When a claim is made for Universal Credit this is all done
online. This can feel very different for those who are used to claiming using a
form or by going to the Job Centre. It can also be a barrier to claiming for
some people. There is ‘Help to Claim’ and
anyone struggling should ask for help. As the claim is online it relies on
claimants giving accurate information. This can lead to errors, and it is these
errors we help to prevent if possible and challenge when they occur. Sometimes
things go wrong because claimants are unaware they should include certain
pieces of information and sometimes the error occurs because the DWP didn’t set
the claim up accurately. I will share a few of the more common ones:
ESA transition: If you need to claim UC and have been
claiming Income-related ESA, you need to let UC know. When you are asked if you
have a fit note, you should say no and add a comment asking for your determined
ESA award (state which group e.g. Support Group or WRAG) to be transferred to
UC under transitional regulation 19.
Children: quite often children are missed off the
first payment breakdown. This is usually
because UC haven’t completed their checks of have simply forgot to add them to
the claim. This is usually easily
rectified with a phone call.
Rent: Universal Credit works differently to legacy
benefits and everyone is entitled to their full eligible rent as an element
whether they work or not. One of the most common problems we’ve encountered
with rent is Untidy Tenancy. This happens when there is someone else on the
tenancy, usually an ex-partner, who no longer lives at the property. Universal
Credit then see that person as responsible for half the rent and pay the
remaining half to the claimant. This is incorrect! At Universal Credit Essentials
we have a template that members can add to their journal stating why they
should get full rent element. This works very quickly with most seeing rent
changed and back payment within a week or two.
If you find yourself being told to claim Universal Credit,
we’d strongly advise three things:
1. Check your change of circumstance definitely
means a switch to UC. Some people are incorrectly advised by HMRC, the DWP and Job
Centre staff.
2. If you do have to move, manually calculate what
you should be entitled to. There’s plenty of help out there, including from
Scope and teams like ours at UCE. This will help you to spot any inaccuracies
in your claim.
3. Check your award thoroughly, especially if it’s
less than you were expecting. If you’ve followed step 2, you should know how
much Universal Credit you should receive. Sometimes even the advisors and work
coaches get things wrong. We’ve seen people told their claims are correct when they’re
actually hundreds of pounds off. There are so many rules and regulations with
UC and sadly not all DWP staff are fully aware of them.
Unfortunately, even when you know how the system should
work, it doesn’t always go to plan. I’m currently chasing my own Work Capability
Assessment and at the stage where I might need to get my MP involved, so please
keep everything crossed for me!
How have you found Universal Credit, or are you yet to
make the switch? Is there anything about Universal Credit you’d like to
know?
