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Advice about moving into Universal Credit from ESA due to pregnancy and boyfriend moving in.
Chelshishon
Member Posts: 5 Listener
Hello, I am on ESA in the support group with a disability premium. I also recieve the high rate for PIP in the daily living component. My boyfriend is on universal credit and currently lives with his parents. I am worried as I am now pregnant and need support from him. I can't raise my baby alone so he will need to move in with me. I am scared to be moved onto universal credit and the money will also be paid into one bank account, which is a problem as I have subscriptions which could also mean his money is taken from my bank as I would need the money paid into my bank due to direct debits for bills. I am worried I will lose an income and don't know of the help out there to speak to someone about this. I know once baby comes as well, that I would be forced into universal credit thus losing my disability premium which is extremely helpful to me. I do understand that he can claim carers allowance for me though, but would he still be claiming universal credit (job seekers component) if that is so? It's a lot of changes which is hard enough for me anyway due to my disability and cornovirus making matters much worse and harder as well. Any advice is appreciated please as I am just terrified, I also can't wait weeks for money to come through from a joint universal credit claim either as I only have certain things I eat due to my disability and now also pregnancy and I can't save up due to debts and my disability, so I would need some sort of advance which I believe they do but I worry it wouldn't be enough for the both of us, bills, food, baby items to prepare for when my little one is here etc. It's all just a bit much, thank you for taking the time to read this.
Replies
Is your partner already claiming Universal Credit? If so, unfortunately you're not meant to be able to then add him to your ESA so when he moves in you will need to make a joint claim for Universal Credit.
With Universal Credit, it is possible to request an 'Alternative Payment Arrangement' where the monthly payment is split in half and half is paid to each of you, but they're not guaranteed to allow it.
There are actually some changes to UC in the next couple of week where there will be a run-on of ESA payments when you switch to UC which will mean you won't go so long without payment and you can always request an advance from UC to help bridge the gap too.
Scope
If you have a few minutes to spare, we'd appreciate your feedback on our online community.
One thing you may find useful is setting up a seperate account for household bills and rent etc and each month transfer enough money into this account then all the direct debits can come out of this account.
You can then have the rest of what is left transferred to your own accounts