Confused about my potential benefit entitlement

janer1967

You can send the statement they requested by post 

You should get the housing element of uc if in social housing it will cover all the rent if in private rent you will get the lha amount for the appropriate housing you are allowed eg 1 bed rate I would imagine 

You can check your lha allowance online 

Topkitten

@janer1967, I appreciate the help but it still leaves me in the same place I think. Ofc I can send by post (if I had them) but 2 accounts are handled online with no paperwork. Then, if I send them I can't take copies in case they lose them which I said in the very first post.

I do live in social housing and I have been checking but I remember from the early days of UC people weren't told they still had to pay the rent themselves and all I need to know is do I have to do that from the UC money or do I negotiate with the council about rent or does the UC group arrange it with the council for me.

Sorry, I try to make things simple with my questions but obviously don't manage it very well.

janer1967

You normally get paid the housing element in your payment and you then pay the housing association 

However it can be set up that the payment is paid direct to the housing association by dwp 

You may have online account but the bank should be able to provide paper copies and may if you explain the situation send you 2 copies 

Maybe you could look at Mike suggestion about the home service option 

You will not be the only person they deal with in this sort of situation 

I'm not trying to be harsh but if you don't get this sorted you will have no money to live off 

I really don't know anything else I can advise but there must be a solution 

Topkitten

@janer1967, I can think of 2 simple solutions. Firstly I could get well enough to go out again (not going to happen) and secondly I could not be around any more (I have tried this option and failed many times). If I stick around then I must sort something out but if the UC option means I have to pay the Council out of it then I am possibly better off staying with ESA (which is what the Government suggests on their site). I still am not sure which way to go but I have appreciated the help and it has cleared some things up. I will try contacting someone tomorrow and just check on the final point, I could live on the UC amount but not if I still have to pay rent (which is almost £400 a month) because that almost halves the money I would have to live on. I will have to get started on calculating what I spend currently in more detail to see what would have to go.

It was so much easier in the days of Housing Benefit.

janer1967

Your uc will be increases by the amount of your rent so it won't actually affect the amount you are left with 

Eg you will get standard rate uc then the lcwra amount  and also the housing element 

You will still get the esa and will also get your PIP 

I'm sorry I can't give exact figures not knowing all your circumstances 
Calcotti advised you will be no worse off than when you claimed before 

Hope you get it sorted 

Topkitten

Ty @janer1967, bit out of it tonight so I'll tart on claiming tomorrow.

calcotti

janer1967 said: Calcotti advised you will be no worse off than when you claimed before 

For the avoidance of doubt I didn't think I have said that. I did say

calcotti said: if you claim UC you will get the standard allowance and the housing element plus the LCWRA element (because you are already in the ESA Support Group). In general this would be a slightly higher amount that the old ESA and Housing Benefit.

However this did not take into account the SDP which is discussed in later replies. I have later explained that if OP wants to get the SDP transitional element included in the UC (an extra £120/month) they need first to get income based ESA reinstated.

calcotti said: if you still meet the conditions for SDP (live alone and nobody claims anything for looking after you) and you can delay help with housing for about what you could do is ask to have the ESA reassessed. Once this is done and some income based award is made which will include the SDP you then apply for UC. This would make you entitled to an additional UC amount called the SDP transitional element worth an extra £120/month.

ESA standard plus Support Group plus Enhanced disability premium plus SDP = £198.60/week
UC standard (from October) plus LCWRA = £668.47/month (£154.26/week, so £44.34 less/week)
UC standard (from October) plus LCWRA  plus SDP element = £788.47/month (£181.85/week, so £16.65 less/week)

For a single ESA Support Group claimant without SDP UC pays more than ESA. For a claimant entitled to SDP Uc pays less but the loss is reduced if the SDP element is included.

The above figures ignore the housing element because that will be the same amount of money as would be received through Housing Benefit.

Adrian_Scope

Good morning @Topkitten. 
There's been lots of really helpful advice given which I'm going to try and summarise below so it doesn't get lost. 

A few of your options are;
Option one:

• Ask ESA to financially reassess you to include an income-related top up and SDP. They will likely need to see your bank statements etc. These do not need to be posted to them, you can take screenshots of your online account statements and email them to the DWP. @Username_removed gave this information regarding that: "DWP are obliged to offer an email address as a reasonable adjustment and your circumstances strongly suggest that such an RA would be entirely appropriate. If DWP refuse to allow you that then it’s easy enough to use correspondence@dwp.gov.uk; make it clear what it’s in respect of and away you go.

If you also need help with housing costs (rent), then once ESA have finished assessing you and added SDP, you'll need to then make a claim for Universal Credit. This is more work than just applying to Universal Credit straight off, but would mean your Universal Credit should then include an extra £120.

Option two:

• Apply for Universal Credit without waiting for ESA to financially reassess you. Applying for Universal Credit without first having ESA financially reassess you would mean you lose entitlement to SDP, so your total overall income would be lower, but you wouldn't need to wait for ESA to financially reassess you or send them bank statements (but depending on your level of savings Universal Credit may ask to see them anyway).

Topkitten said:

I do live in social housing and I have been checking but I remember from the early days of UC people weren't told they still had to pay the rent themselves and all I need to know is do I have to do that from the UC money or do I negotiate with the council about rent or does the UC group arrange it with the council for me.

In most cases you will need to pay your rent from the money you receive from UC. So instead of them paying your rent to your social housing landlord like they did with housing benefit, they would pay the rent to you and you would then need to pay it to your landlord. However, there are situations where you can request that they pay it straight to the landlord instead.

janer1967

@calcotti thanks for the clarification was all getting bit messy and confusing 

Thanks @Adrian_Scope as well 

Hope this helps @Topkitten