Wet room !

Seanchai

Our wet room got started yesterday and the asbestos got cleared first , ...the wet room installers never halted all day ( even for a cuppa ) the two of them ( and the electrician) are doing grand work indeed and it's looking good . 
I had mentioned to Poppy123456 about my wife,s pension ( she missed it by a few weeks when she was 60 ...then it was to be paid out to her when she was 65 and 7 months...that was 6th January this year ) The first payment for her pension was meant to go in last Friday....but never appeared...my wife phoned the DWP , who told her it had been "suspended "....and why is that my wife asked ....Emma, not sure , I will give you another number to phone , waited at least 30 minutes to get through only to be told that it was not them but they gave her another number to phone ....and so it went on , for another three different numbers ( each one having to wait roughly 30 minutes each time ) eventually she got through to someone who told her that she will check to see why her pension had been suspended .....she was only a couple of minutes and told my wife there was no reason for it being suspended and she would out it through on Monday ( this was last Friday my wife phoned) ...the lady on the phone said to give it up seven days from Monday) ...of course if it does take seven days then that takes us towards the end of February....and she was meant to start her pension on 6th January. 
We were also getting hounded for rent by the council , we started Universal credit in December and my wife went into the rent office to get it fixed out ...we were told just to pay our months rent when universal credit is paid , we got a letter two weeks ago telling us we owed £96 to rent , wife phoned them and was told , " ah , that's ok , there will be no more letters come out from us , just pay it when the universal credit comes in ....yesterday we got a " "final demand " for £264 and it must be paid right away to stop any further action . Another phone call to the rent office .Only to be told , it's ok,  just pay it when your UC comes in ???

janer1967

Hi , Im sorry to hear you are having so much trouble with your wife's pension and UC, I can understand the run around you sometimes have to end up speaking to the right person. I hope it all gets resolved soon so you are able to pay your rent . Good news that your wet room is prgressing

Seanchai

Thanks janer1967....it all came on from September...DLA to PIP ( which of course is stressful on everybody who goes through it) then stopping income support and carers allowance and going in to UC in November/ December ....we have had one payment fro UC which was enough to cover the rent for the month...the my wife going on state pension at the beginning of January .
then the wet room getting halted because they found asbestos ...but they are really getting on with it now ...thank God. 
I also thank everybody on Scope for their expertise and support over the last four or five months ...especially Poppy123456 for her expertise in how the DWP works ?( or ...does not work as the case maybe) ??
Thanks to all ?

pollyanna1052

It`s a clear case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing and a huge case of GGGGGGRRRR!

Adrian_Scope

Glad they've finally started work @Seanchai. The stress of them getting it done will soon be forgotten when it's finished and you have your wet room. Hopefully it won't take them too long to complete it.

I'm glad @poppy123456 has been able to help you so much with the DLA to PIP transfer and the change over to UC. Sorry you're still having problems with the rent. Do they pay your rent directly for you or does it come to you? 
I know often these letters are automatically generated but it must be worrying to keep receiving them despite them assuring you it's fine. It might be worth asking for a copy of your rent statement. I know many people have found that during the process of switching to Universal Credit that they've gone from paying rent in advance to being a few weeks in arrears.

Seanchai

Hi Adrian....yep , the wet room is lovely , the wetroom was fitted Wednesday and Thursday  the flooring was fitted on Friday ( we were told to leave it until Saturday before we had a shower ) I had a shower on Saturday afternoon and it was great ...but after ten glorious minutes the water was rising , it turned out that the pump was not pumping the water away , we had to bale the water out by hand as it was pretty deep ....and all over the floor . They sent a fella out today and it turned out the pump needed priming ....its working now ok ?
Yes Adrian , my wife went into the council offices yesterday to pay our rent  and the lady in the rent office said that we were still a week behind in payments ( even though we only got £164 from UC this month ( we were overpaid a couple of weeks with carers allowance by mistake so they said they took it off our UC...our rent is £266 a month) . My wife got her first state pension paid today and it was £424 for the month ( £150 short ) my wife phoned them up and asked why it was short ....they told her it was because we got paid a couple of weeks carers allowance by mistake and they took it off her pension....so we are paying twice for their mistake ( that's the first pension payment she has had since going on pension on 6th January ?) ...they said that that was how it worked . the woman on the phone said she thought we would be better off on pension credits ....my wife told her that we were told we could not claim pension credits until we are both on state pension ( the lady on the phone  said she never knew about that ) ?? What chance have we got if they do not know how it works ?. 
Very pleased with out wet room though Adrian ..thanks .?

poppy123456

Hi,

Sorry I only just seen this. Glad your wet room is now done and the problem you had is now sorted.

The reason why the person you spoke to on the phone didn’t know about pension credit is because they read from a screen and their knowledge isn’t the greatest with benefits. You will get some advisers that have some knowledge but mostly not.

Although your wife can’t claim carers allowance she can still claim carers element of UC so you need to make sure that is paid I with your UC amount, check your UC statement for this. 

The pension being reduced by the carers allowance, difficult to advice because it will depend when you payments fall on and when her carers allowance stopped. Difficult to advise without seeing your paperwork. Visiting a local advice centre for advice on the deductions of carers allowance from UC and state pension is advised because you’re right it could be that it’s been deducted twice. 

Benefits, what a nightmare! ?

Seanchai

Thanks Poppy ....yep , we need to be experts when it comes down to paperwork from the various government agencies.  I think my wife has done so much phoning and talking to various people that she has been put off phoning anyone ( but i think that is their mission ....to put people off phoning )
 at least we have got the basics sorted out now.
Just checked Poppy and yes, our UC does include carers of £160.20 ....but of course my wife,s pension is deducted from UC ( her pension is £548 a month and I have just noticed that they have deducted £616 this month , my ESA is also deducted off UC £485.55 ...this month we were left UC of £164 whilst our rent is £267 a month .I fully understand that it's impossible to work out without the paperwork Poppy ( we have the paperwork in front of us and we have a heck of a time trying to understand it all )??? 
Once again I thank you Poppy and everyone at scope for their help and support ...We are so grateful for the help from Scope ....and may you be able to help others for a long time to come .
Thanks to all ????

Adrian_Scope

I was going to suggest checking for the carer's element as well @poppy123456 as this does seem to get missed a lot!
@Seanchai: it's always worth double checking your UC statements for errors as they're sadly not uncommon.

From the sounds of it, you should receive your standard couple allowance, carer element, rent element and LCWRA element of £336.20 and then of course your deductions for ESA and your partner's pension. 

poppy123456

@Seanchai this is where people start thinking that UC pays less, when that's not always correct. Your ESA and your wife's pension is a weekly benefit BUT UC is a monthly benefit.

This means that when working out the deductions from UC with the weekly benefits it's worked out as follows ... ESA Contributions based £111.65 x 52 = £5,805.80 then divide by 12 to get the monthly amount = £483 deducted for your ESA. Do the same with the pension weekly amount.

Seanchai

You know Poppy , it dawned on me that that was the case....I also got the council quarterly magazine in today and it has a page explaining it as well ......
Convert weekly - multiply by 52 and divide by 12.
Convert fortnightly- multiply by 26 and divide by 12
Convert four weekly- multiply by 13 and divide by 12
convert quarterly- multiply by 4 and divide by 12.

Yep Poppy , a lot of people will be caught by that ...thanks ?

Seanchai

I will go over it again Adrian thanks ....I quite believe they make mistakes as one person tells us something different from the next . One lady in DWP told my wife last week that we would be better off applying for pension credits.......my wife replied that she was told that we could not apply for pension credit until I also go on state pension ..."Oh , I,m not sure of pension credit " said the lady from DWP. 
It will take a wee while to get used to it I suppose...At least now they are not making us fill out a " journal" every week . Thanks Adrian ?