Help me if you can I’m feeling unsure.

Hello,

During my advice line duty yesterday I dealt with my first very Universal Credit (UC) enquiry.  This is about a single woman who recently became unemployed and was directed to claim UC; which she did.  Now things have become a bit more complicated as she has now become responsible for her disabled grandchild who is a recipient of the higher rate Care component to Disability Living Allowance (DLA).  She went to claim Child Benefit, Income Support and Child Tax Credit but was told this is not possible and that she should report a relevant change of circumstances and to claim addition amounts of UC for her grandchild.  I did the following calculations to make the comparison between one and t’other:

Income Support (Weekly Amount) 
£72.40 Personal Allowance  
£34.20 Carer Premium  
£147.11 Child Tax Credit          
inc. family, child, dis’ & sev’ dis elements              
£20.50 Child Benefit

£274.21 weekly income

Universal Credit (Monthly amount)

£314.67 Standard Allowance 25+
£274.58 Eldest Child Element
£148.61 carer element
£362.92 dis child addition higher rate

£1100.78 monthly income
weekly equivalent of: £254.03

Please excuse and point out any mistake I might have made here, and please be gentle with me as it’s my first time.  But if I am correct, there seems to be income of £20.18 less on UC than IS.  Is this because of the Universal Credit (it’s not fair) Regulations?

Any comment and guidance welcome.

Thank you.

Patrick

She should still be able to claim the child benefit so the figures aren’t too different (in this case).

There will be people who could be a lot worse off under UC ( subject to transitional protection but there are still no regs for that).

Thank you Jon,

There was that mistake I knew I’m make; missing off the Child Benefit.  Thank you and I don’t suppose I’ll do it again.  As you say, little or no difference when Child Benefit added, so no need for me to blame the its not fair regs this time.

Patrick.

Jon Blackwell - 22 July 2014 10:09 AM

There will be people who could be a lot worse off under UC ( subject to transitional protection but there are still no regs for that).

Anyone know what is happening with transitional protection in the pathfinder areas?

Also, what is the difference between ‘transitional’ and ‘transitory’ provisions?

Billy Durrant - 22 July 2014 01:24 PM

Also, what is the difference between ‘transitional’ and ‘transitory’ provisions?

Apparently…

“8.4.17 A transitional provision manages the transition from one regime to another.

EXAMPLE
A provision that spells out how the Bill works in relation to events or matters that span the end of the old regime and the start of the new regime.

8.4.18 A transitory provision has a limited shelf-life, such as a provision that will expire on a particular day.

EXAMPLE
A provision that references to dogs in the Dogs Act 1990 include cats until the coming into force of the Cats Act 2010.

8.4.19 Depending upon the circumstances, a transitory provision may also be a transitional provision but need not be so.”

(hope that’s clear!  - it’s from Office of the Parliamentary Counsel: Drafting Guidance

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/293866/guidancebook-20_March.pdf )

Billy Durrant - 22 July 2014 01:24 PM

Anyone know what is happening with transitional protection in the pathfinder areas?

It’s all gone very quiet on this. There’s a general power in WRA 2012 to legislate for UC transitional protection but there’s no current provision for a transitional amount in the UC regs.

The intention is to provide transitional protection only in “migrated” cases. There’s been no migration there’s no transitional protection.

So what about cases where, for example, there is a short break in a JSA claim necessitating a new claim for UC but HB remains in payment on low/nil income with a disability premium included? Has anyone got any experience of transitional protection in cases like that?

Billy Durrant - 22 July 2014 04:59 PM

So what about cases where, for example, there is a short break in a JSA claim necessitating a new claim for UC but HB remains in payment on low/nil income with a disability premium included? Has anyone got any experience of transitional protection in cases like that?

Until very recently, these cases were excluded from the Gateway for UC because there had to be two clear weeks after the HB ended to be eligible for UC. The Gateway conditions changed from 30th June this year. So, the short answer is, no, not yet. Watch this space.