ESA contribution based and want to claim housing & council tax benefit

rinki_dinki

Hi my daughter receives old style contribution based ESA in the support group. She has moved out of our house into her own home for the first time. When we changed her address with ESA we were told that to claim housing and council tax she will have to change everything to UC is this correct please

poppy123456

Unless she’s living in either supported or temporary housing then yes she will need to claim UC for help with any rent.
This will end any Income Related ESA she maybe claiming. 

Any Contributions based ESA will continue and be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.
Council tax reduction needs to be claimed from her Local Authority because it’s not part of UC.

rinki_dinki

Thankyou for your reply. She has moved into private accommodation. Do I just make a claim for UC and will it ask what benefit she already receives

poppy123456

Then yes she will need to claim UC. I don’t believe it asks what benefits she already claims but they will know. 

As she’s in the Support Group she will be entitled to the LCWRA element from the start of her claim. 

Does she currently claim a disability benefit such as PIP daily living or DLA mid/high rate care? If so does anyone claims carers allowance or carers element of UC for looking after her?

Is part of her ESA Income Related? 

The advice to claim UC is assuming she doesn’t have savings/capital of more than £16,000.

rinki_dinki

No we are also going to be claiming PIP now she is not at home and I will not look after her 100% and we have never claimed anything for her. She does not have any savings she just has her ESA of 135.35 per week

poppy123456

That means at least part of her ESA is Income Related.
There will be a run on for 2 weeks for her ESA and after this any Income Related will end. 

If she’s under 35 she will be entitled to the shared rate of Local housing allowance. You can check that here https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/ if she successfully claims daily living PIP the housing element will increase to 1 bedroom rate. 

If she’s over 35 she’ll be entitled to 1 bedroom rate regardless of a PIP award. 

She will need a copy of her tenancy agreement to be able to claim housing element.

rinki_dinki

When I spoke to the ESA person today she said she will continue to receive ESA until she is paid UC. She is 35 in August. The ESA person said she can have an extra bedroom so someone can be there to care overnight. I have filled in her details on our local council site and they say she should receive 1009.19 per month including her rent and that she will get LCWRA as she is in the ESA support group already. I have really no idea how these all work or how to apply as we have never claimed anything for her before

calcotti

rinki_dinki said:

When I spoke to the ESA person today she said she will continue to receive ESA until she is paid UC. 

That is incorrect. Income based ESA stops two weeks after the UC claim is made. The first UC payment is one month and 6 days from the date of claim. She can request a UC advance but this has to be repaid over a maximum of 24 months.

The ESA person should be advising on her bedroom entitlement either. If she needs an overnight carer then it is true that she may be entitled to an extra bedroom but it will be for the UC Decision Maker to decide based on the evidence of need.

it is correct that she will get LCWRA from the start.

rinki_dinki

Thank you for your reply. I have no idea how to sort all this to be honest. It says on her benefits letter she is on contribution based ESA with the disability income guarantee and is in the support group. Her house rent with 2 bedrooms is below the threshhold for a single tenant in a one bedroom property according to our council UC assessment pages

poppy123456

At the moment she's entitled to the shared rate of LHA because she's under 35. This will change to 1 bedroom when she's 35.

The rules for housing benefit are that to claim an extra bedroom for a carer you must be claiming a qualifying disability benefit, i don't know if the same rules apply to housing element. If it does then because she's not claiming a disability benefit she won't be able to have the extra bedroom.

ESA letters are extremely difficult to read and understand. At least part of her ESA is Income Related so this part will stop after 2 weeks once she claims UC. It makes no difference to her overall entitlement anyway because the ESA would be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

I'd advise you to claim UC ASAP because it can't be backdated, unless it's under the most extreme circumstances.

rinki_dinki

Thank you both for your help. We will call UC tomorrow and try to sort it out for her

poppy123456

I wouldn't advise you to ring UC for any advice because that's not their job to do that because they are not benefits advisors. It has been known in the past many times for them to give terrible advice. You can claim UC online here. https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/how-to-claim

rinki_dinki

Thank you I will use the link to do it