QUESTION RE LCWRA AND FORCED MIGRATION

justaman

Hello, I am currently on ESA in the Support Group and have been told I will never have to be reassessed with a Work Capability Test in the future because my health is never going to improve.I also have full PIP .I do not do any work. We have Housing Benefit 
i am married. My wife currently works around 16 hours per week.
When I am forcibly migrated to Universal Credit and my wife continues to work part time for around 16 hours a week will she be forced to attend Job Centre meetings ? 

Thank you in advance.

Middleton

justaman said:

Hello, I am currently on ESA in the Support Group and have been told I will never have to be reassessed with a Work Capability Test in the future because my health is never going to improve.I also have full PIP .I do not do any work. We have Housing Benefit 
i am married. My wife currently works around 16 hours per week.
When I am forcibly migrated to Universal Credit and my wife continues to work part time for around 16 hours a week will she be forced to attend Job Centre meetings ? 

Thank you in advance.

Ive personally never known anyone not to be reassessed at some point.

Bamboo

"When I am forcibly migrated to Universal Credit and my wife continues to work part time for around 16 hours a week will she be forced to attend Job Centre meetings ?" it would depend how much she is earning and whether she is registered as your carer?

The government have recently increased the threshold for part-time workers at which they are left alone and plan to increase it further but full details haven't been released. Rather than hours worked, it is based on earnings. 

If your wife is also registered as your carer (and so receives the carer element of UC) then as a carer she should not be asked to attend Job Centre meetings.
The exception being the initial ID and verification meetings.  

justaman

Sorry I should have said that no my wife is not my registered cater ..that falls to my son. My wife earns current minimum wage…we are in our 50s.

Bamboo

I've just double-checked and the increase of AET (which is basically the amount you need to earn for the Job Centre to leave you alone) is set to increase to 15x the National Minimum Wage. 

So if your wife is earning minimum wage and 16 hours a week, she should be left alone and won't need to go to regular meetings with the Job Centre. 

poppy123456

The AET couples amount from 26th September will be £782/month, so if your wife earns are more than this then she should be in the light touch regime.

justaman

And one last query please . Do any benefits count towards monthly income in my situation ? Or will only my wife’s earnings count ? ( sorry if that is a daft question) 

calcotti

Bamboo said:

So if your wife is earning minimum wage and 16 hours a week, she should be left alone and won't need to go to regular meetings with the Job Centre. 

No, because the couple AET threshold would apply so 19 hours x NMW is used (under the current regulations applicable from 26th September) but government are indicating that the thresholds will be raised this again (because they seem to believe sanctioning UC claimants is boosts employment, for which there is no evidence).

poppy123456

justaman said:

And one last query please . Do any benefits count towards monthly income in my situation ? Or will only my wife’s earnings count ? ( sorry if that is a daft question) 

No, only her earnings will count. Your contributions based ESA will be deducted in full though.

justaman

Thank you all .Things are changing rapidly then .Until this my wife has never had any obligation to attend the Job Centre since I was placed in Support Group ESA some years ago.
thanks for the help , I appreciate it . Tough times ahead I guess for many of us.

calcotti

justaman said: ..my wife has never had any obligation to attend the Job Centre since I was placed in Support Group ESA some years ago.

That's because under ESA she is not a benefit claimant because it is your claim. Under UC you will both be claimants.

poppy123456

justaman said:

Thank you all .Things are changing rapidly then .Until this my wife has never had any obligation to attend the Job Centre since I was placed in Support Group ESA some years ago.
thanks for the help , I appreciate it . Tough times ahead I guess for many of us.

Your contributions based ESA is your claim, not hers and doesn't include any money for her. Your ESA should be £117.60/week (£235.20/fortnight)

calcotti

poppy123456 said:

justaman said:

Thank you all .Things are changing rapidly then .Until this my wife has never had any obligation to attend the Job Centre since I was placed in Support Group ESA some years ago.
thanks for the help , I appreciate it . Tough times ahead I guess for many of us.

Your contributions based ESA is your claim, not hers and doesn't include any money for her. Your ESA should be £117.60/week (£235.20/fortnight)

I infer that OP is on legacy ESA so is eligible for income based ESA the calculation of which would include some money for her (but may not be entitled to any due to wife's earnings). She will be taken into account but nonetheless it remains the case that she is not a claimant and therefore not subject to any conditions.

justaman

poppy123456 said:

justaman said:

Thank you all .Things are changing rapidly then .Until this my wife has never had any obligation to attend the Job Centre since I was placed in Support Group ESA some years ago.
thanks for the help , I appreciate it . Tough times ahead I guess for many of us.

Your contributions based ESA is your claim, not hers and doesn't include any money for her. Your ESA should be £117.60/week (£235.20/fortnight.

## My ESA has always been reduced by my wife’s earnings .I receive nowhere near £117.60 a week for sure.
just checked ..I receive £77. 47 per week from DWP
it says my income related amount is £187 less wife’s earnings which gives £77.47 a week and that is indeed what they give me .
cheers

poppy123456

That means your ESA is Income Related and not contirbutions based. Have you used a benefits calculator to check entitlement to UC? You would have the work allowance which would be £344/month and means your wife can earn this much before the 55% deductions apply.

You metioned your son is your carer does he claim carers allowance or carers element of UC for looking after you? If he doesn't, when you claim UC your wife can claim the carers element, which would mean she won't have any commiments.

justaman

Yes sorry my ESA is income related and yes my son does claim the carers allowance . He has not yet been migrated to UC either.
We were thinking perhaps that my wife’s might become my career instead and claim caters allowance and then my son can seek work

Bamboo

calcotti said:

Bamboo said:

So if your wife is earning minimum wage and 16 hours a week, she should be left alone and won't need to go to regular meetings with the Job Centre. 

No, because the couple AET threshold would apply so 19 hours x NMW is used (under the current regulations applicable from 26th September) but government are indicating that the thresholds will be raised this again (because they seem to believe sanctioning UC claimants is boosts employment, for which there is no evidence).

My apologies, I was having a silly moment and focussing on the wife as an individual rather than joint claim. I don't seem to be able to edit my post to add the correction.

Don't get me started on sanctions, it's crazy. Sanctions are already sky high at the moment. 

I'm probably not allowed to share this but did you know the highest % of calls in many service centres are currently RHP requests? It used to be querying claims or budgeting advances. That's just sickening  

justaman

calcotti said:

poppy123456 said:

justaman said:

Thank you all .Things are changing rapidly then .Until this my wife has never had any obligation to attend the Job Centre since I was placed in Support Group ESA some years ago.
thanks for the help , I appreciate it . Tough times ahead I guess for many of us.

Your contributions based ESA is your claim, not hers and doesn't include any money for her. Your ESA should be £117.60/week (£235.20/fortnight)

I infer that OP is on legacy ESA so is eligible for income based ESA the calculation of which would include some money for her (but may not be entitled to any due to wife's earnings). She will be taken into account but nonetheless it remains the case that she is not a claimant and therefore not subject to any conditions…….##THAT is correct .That is the situation I am in …so is that not going to be allowed under UC?.

Bamboo

justaman said:
THAT is correct .That is the situation I am in …so is that not going to be allowed under UC?.

Unfortunately not. There will be an expectation of what your wife earns on UC and if she falls below this she can be called in regularly for work search meetings. 

Does your son claim Carer's allowance or the carer element of UC for caring for you?

justaman

calcotti said:

poppy123456 said:

justaman said:

Thank you all .Things are changing rapidly then .Until this my wife has never had any obligation to attend the Job Centre since I was placed in Support Group ESA some years ago.
thanks for the help , I appreciate it . Tough times ahead I guess for many of us.

Your contributions based ESA is your claim, not hers and doesn't include any money for her. Your ESA should be £117.60/week (£235.20/fortnight)

I infer that OP is on legacy ESA so is eligible for income based ESA the calculation of which would include some money for her (but may not be entitled to any due to wife's earnings). She will be taken into account but nonetheless it remains the case that she is not a claimant and therefore not subject to any conditions…….##THAT is correct .That is the situation I am in …so is that not going to be allowed under UC?.

poppy123456

justaman said:

Yes sorry my ESA is income related and yes my son does claim the carers allowance . He has not yet been migrated to UC either.
We were thinking perhaps that my wife’s might become my career instead and claim caters allowance and then my son can seek work

Your wife would not need to claim carers allowance if you claimed UC because it's just deducted in full anyway. She can just claim carers element which would increase your maximum UC entitlement by £168.81/month. Your son would need to cancel the CA claim first.

As you're in the Support Group then you would be entitled to the LCWRA element from the start of your claim. Your ESA and housing benefit will continue for 2 weeks once you claim UC, after this they would both stop.

Even without writing the figures down you would be better off based purely on the deductions from ESA because of her earnings. At the moment she's working for nothing, this wouldn't be the case if you claimed UC.