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Client on ESA with SDP needs to claim housing costs. Query about transitional payments
First time dealing with this since the SDP UC block was lifted so just want to check as feel I am missing something -
Client on ESA and PIP only. Just applied for Carers Allowance today. Client lives with, and cares for her brother who gets PIP. He apparently can’t claim means tested benefits as has a big work pension (client wouldn’t tell me how much). So looking at client making a claim for council tax support and housing costs (rent is £75 p/w) for their joint tenancy.
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Her current ESA -
Personal allowance £74.35
Client support component £39.20
Enhanced disability premium £17.10
Severe disability premium £66.95
Carer premium £37.50
Total applicable amount £235.10
Minus Carers Allowance of £67.25
Total ESA £167.85 per week
+ £67.25 Carer Allowance.
Total benefit entitlement = £231.10 per week
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Prospective monthly UC -
Standard allowance £409.89
Housing £325.00
Disability or health condition £341.92
SDP transitional element £120
Total before adjustments £1196.81
Minus Carers Allowance of £291.41
Total UC £905.40 per month (£276.19 per week)
+ £67.25 Carers Allowance.
Total benefit entitlement = £343.44 per week.
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Entitledto calculator doesn’t seem to show SDP elements so I manually included the £120 in.
So she is better off by £112.34 per week until April then £92.34 when the £20 increase in UC goes away.
Is the above correct? Obviously she hasn’t got Carers Allowance yet so this will need to be adjusted in her UC when awarded and may cause an overpayment so will tell her not to spend the 3 month backdated amount of CA. This is complicating things further.
[ Edited: 4 Feb 2021 at 04:27 pm by JAS1 ]Don’t think the numbers are right
The total existing benefit amount should be £235.10.
For the UC calculation you have put
Total UC £905.40 per month (£276.19 per week)
+ £67.25 Carers Allowance.
Total benefit entitlement = £343.44 per week.
I reckon £905.40/month is only £208.94/week, so
+ £67.25 Carers Allowance.
Total benefit entitlement = £276.19 per week.
Still better off even if UC reduces by £20 but the difference is not so great.
I assume the £75/week is their share of the rent, not the whole rent.
[ Edited: 4 Feb 2021 at 06:33 pm by Ianb ]Ian is right, you’ve just added the CA twice in the UC calculation.
Oh yes, well spotted! Perils of doing sums at the end of the day. Cheers both.
She was pretty cagey with the figures which makes things tricky, I’ll double check that rent amount for sure.
The carers allowance situation is hard to explain to clients. At some point in the future there will be an overpayment calculated under reg 73, the CA will be backdated to a date before the start of the UC claim so I assume any CA paid before the start of UC claim will be treated as capital not income, after that it will be deducted monthly as if it was being received at the time. Going off this thread at least
Knowing the rent liability is crucial because it is only the inclusion of the housing element that makes the UC amount higher than the legacy amount. If £75 is the actual rent and your client only gets help with half that amount then there will be no incentive to move to UC.
yeah definitely, obviously if she can’t tell me the exact amount I won’t be able to give her an accurate comparison anyway.
I haven’t had chance to compare the new elements yet but is my maths wonky again or is the SDP + LCWRA element combo in UC not just £16.65 per week worse than the ESA SG, EDP + SDP legacy combo?