Thinking of changing to Universal Credit from Legacy Benefits advice request

bigben1984

Hello everyone 

Looking for some advice please if possible in regards to changing from legacy benefits to universal credit 

My partner unfortunately has become unwell over the last 2 years and now claims all eligible benefits but we are still currently on the old legacy benefits 

We did a entitled2 check last night to find that we as a family would be far better off by a very large amount monthly if we went onto Universal Credit 

The difference is £456.65 which is a huge amount of money to miss out on I’m also aware £80 of that would be the COVID uplift until April but even if that stops it’s still a huge amount of money to gain by changing over 

My concerns are I’ve heard so many horrible stories about Universal credit and would love some advice please on what people would recommend ? Would we be crazy to change to Universal Credit or has everything settled down now ? 

Is there anything else we need to be aware of if we change over ?

We currently claim the following 

TAX CREDITS 
CHILD BENEFIT 
NEW STYLE ESA CONTRIBUTIONS BASED ( SUPPORT GROUP )
PIP ( HIGHER RATE ON BOTH PARTS )
CARERS ALLOWANCE 
HOUSING BENEFIT 
COUNCIL TAX BENEFIT 

Thank you all in advance 

janer1967

Hi and welcome 

Some people are better off on UC but I would compare each element of your current benefits against UC elements 

You wont get any tax credit if you go over to UC 

You really need to get expert advice before doing anything maybe contact welfare rights 

bigben1984

janer1967 said:

Hi and welcome 

Some people are better off on UC but I would compare each element of your current benefits against UC elements 

You wont get any tax credit if you go over to UC 

You really need to get expert advice before doing anything maybe contact welfare rights 

Thank you I’ll have a look

bigben1984

Just spoken to Citizens advice they stated everything that I was already aware of with regards to being better off 

They stated we would get a 2 week run on with housing benefit and the only other benefit that will stop instantly is Tax Credits 

Really not sure what to do and don’t want to make the wrong decisions 

TeddyB22

If you are receiving SDP & EDP with your ESA you will lose that. This might stop you from claiming UC.
The government are supposed to compensate people who have lost the premiums but as far as I know it's half what you would get on legacy benefits.
I lost those premiums over 14 months ago. I'm still waiting on compensation.

bigben1984

TeddyB22 said:

If you are receiving SDP & EDP with your ESA you will lose that. This might stop you from claiming UC.
The government are supposed to compensate people who have lost the premiums but as far as I know it's half what you would get on legacy benefits.
I lost those premiums over 14 months ago. I'm still waiting on compensation.

Thanks for the heads up I really appreciate it I don’t believe we receive either SDP or EDP 

I really hope you get the compensation soon that’s shocking 

woodbine

Just to say that if you wait until you are "managed migrated" to UC you will get transitional protection.

Ross_Alumni

Hi @bigben1984

Welcome to the community, hope you're well.

I hope the above advice has been helpful. Please note that while benefit calculators offer a useful estimate of what you might be able to get, they don't guarantee entitlement. As advised above, it might be worth seeking professional advice on this, or wait until managed migration comes to you, as @woodbine says.

Adrian_Scope

Hello @bigben1984. I've noticed that sometimes online calculators don't always make the deductions for overlapping benefits (in this case yours would be ESA and Carer's Allowance) so be sure to check this carefully. Another thing to keep in mind is that any council tax support you receive may change when you switch to UC. 

It would be worth seeing if you can get a 'better off' calculator done to double-check your findings. 

Some people are hundreds better off on UC, so it does happen.