LCWRA relationship

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HCooney
HCooney Online Community Member Posts: 2 Listener
in Universal Credit (UC)

Hi everybody! 

I decided to sign up for the forum after seeing some posts online through my searches. It looks great.

One question I have is i receive LCWRA and I’m now in a relationship but we don’t live together yet. I was wondering if because I’m now in a relationship would I be entitled to more money?

One other question I have is when we eventually move in together, what would happen with my money as my girlfriend doesn’t claim and can potentially earn 30k a year? Would I receive more money as we will have to pay rent and other bills? Or would I loose money because of how much she could potentially earn?

P.s. please make your comments as clear and easy to read as possible as I may struggle to make a sense of it all

Thank you :)

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  • Kimi87
    Kimi87 Online Community Member Posts: 6,207 Championing
    edited June 5

    You are not entitled to more money now because you still live as a single person.

    If you move in together, what happens is:

    You report the changes in your claim.

    Your girlfriend opens a new claim.

    You join the claims together.

    You then have a joint couples claim and any entitlement to UC is based on your joint circumstances.

    UC is fully means tested including your LCWRA.

    Your LCWRA would allow your girlfriend to earn £411( if claiming Housing Element) or £684 (if not) before UC make their standard deduction of £0.55 in every £1 earned in wages.

    This is known as the work allowance.

    You could use a benefits calculator to estimate joint entitlement to UC:

    https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

  • HCooney
    HCooney Online Community Member Posts: 2 Listener

    thank you kimi, I have just looked at the benefits calculator. With the answers I have put in is the money shown at the end how much money I would receive each month if I lived with her or is it how much money I would earn if I was by myself?

  • Kimi87
    Kimi87 Online Community Member Posts: 6,207 Championing

    If you put both your details into the calculator as if you were already living together then that is the estimate of your joint award when living together in future.

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