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Moving out of current area. Benefit changes

Friendlyghost

Hi.
Been a while since I posted but wanted to see if anyone had any recent experience of being on means tested support group with pip & moving House to a new area ?
The job centre tell me it would trigger UC claim & I would receive about half as much money as I do now.
But my friend also support group recently moved out of area & didn't get changed to UC

Anyone have any idea what the current rules actually are ?

Thanks

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Ross_Alumni

Hello @Friendlyghost and thank you for posting. It's lovely to see you on the community.

Are you planning on moving home or is it just something you are thinking about at this moment in time?

I found this page over on the EntitledTo website about changes that may trigger a move to UC, and it has a section about moving home which you can find here. Do any of the scenarios match with your situation?

poppy123456

It would only promt a move to UC if you need to claim for help with any rent and you're moving to a different local Authority. If you'll be living in either supported or temporary housing then you'll need to claim housing benefit.

If you're currently claiming housing benefit and remain in the same local Authority then you won't need to claim UC. You would just report a change of address and your housing benefit will calculated based on your new address.

If you claim UC then any Income Related ESA you're claiming will end 2 weeks after you claim UC. As you're in the Support Group for ESA then you'll be entitled to the LCWRA element from the start of your claim. LCWRA for UC pays more than ESA Support Group if your ESA doesn't include the Severe disability Premium.

If it includes the SDP then you'll be entitled to the transitional protection in your maximum UC entitlement but you will be slightly worse off than you are now.

Friendlyghost said:

But my friend also support group recently moved out of area & didn't get changed to UC

If they didn't need to claim for help with the rent then yes they wouldn't needed to have claimed UC. If they claimed for help with the rent and they live in either supported or tempoary housing then the rent is covered by housing benefit, so again no claim for UC would have been needed.

Friendlyghost

Hi everyone.
I don't have any firm plans yet I am a council tenant so I can only move in my area or out of area to where there is family.
My current area is rubbish. No taxi will take a wheelchair the supposed accessable ones never answer the phone & the bloke at my train station always refuses to sell me tickets because our station isn't manned 247 & getting a ramp out 'according to him' isn't the train guards job . This added to the fact that there are rats In my loft the council just won't fix + other issues make me want to move.

I am support group with sdp and housing benefit but I don't live in supported accomodation..
I want to apply to move to Torquay where I have an aunt & cousin's because moving in my area will only solve the rat problem. & If I have to loose half my income I better make it worth the sacrifice..?

I was told by the job centre that I will get about half the money I get now because there is no sdp & you have to pay your rent out if your award there is no housing benefit element.
if I trigger the change because you can not get transition protection if you have a change & that if you are awarded the protection & have a change it will be removed.

I understand government wants to save money. But it seems a bit harsh just to half someone income.

So I thought I'd ask in here & see what happened to others.. because my job centre isn't always very honest...

calcotti

Friendlyghost said:
I was told by the job centre that I will get about half the money I get now because there is no sdp & you have to pay your rent out if your award there is no housing benefit element.
if I trigger the change because you can not get transition protection if you have a change & that if you are awarded the protection & have a change it will be removed.

If you would get less on UC but it is very unlikely to take away half your money. You can use a benefits calculator to see what you would get.

You would get a transitional SDP top up but they are correct that this will reduce over time and could lose it completely if some changes occur, such as becoming half of a couple.
Yes you have to pay your rent out of your UC but the UC includes money to help with the rent, in most cases UC will include exactly the same help as you would get from Housing Benefit.