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Work Allowances
Please can someone advise me the weekly figures/amounts for the work allowance regards single claimants with or without children, couples with or without children etc etc. Reg 22(3) of the UC Regs 2013 seem to say that people on ESA with children and no housing benefit seem to be permitted to earn a great deal of money. Am I reading this correct or can someone please explain how it is all worked out. Many thanks JM
Don’t forget that those regs are monthly figures.
The figures below are the weekly equivalents taken from our benefits tables so the formatting is off. The first column is the Earnings disregard without housing costs in the Universal Credit Assessment. And the second is where there are housing costs.
Weekly equivalent
Couple 25.55 25.55
With children 123.35 51.09
One or both with limited capability for work 148.90 44.19
Single 25.55 25.55
With children 168.92 60.53
With limited capability for work 148.90 44.19
Given the vast difference in some of these work allowances, depending on whether you have housing costs, it would seem that there could be a “better buy” for some people with low-ish housing costs and high-ish earnings. Presumably you cannot simply opt not to claim housing costs if you have them - or can you? And presumably failing to mention your housing costs when claiming is not a good idea!?
Given the vast difference in some of these work allowances, depending on whether you have housing costs, it would seem that there could be a “better buy” for some people with low-ish housing costs and high-ish earnings. Presumably you cannot simply opt not to claim housing costs if you have them - or can you? And presumably failing to mention your housing costs when claiming is not a good idea!?
Housing costs “better buy” was discussed in this thread..
According to CPAG’s Universal Credit handbook, the disregard will only be reduced by a maximum of 1.5x the rent or to the minimum amount, whichever is more advantageous.
As 1.5 is about 1/0.65, it looks to me as though this is intended to deal with the better buy problem.
That original 1.5x scheme has been replaced by the simple either/or table above. The CPAG book was based on the early draft regs and those have changed enormously. I’d park that book somewhere as ‘of historical interest only’.