Better off under UC?

My client works 5 hours a weeks as a cleaner in a school, earning £125pm.  She receives Income based JSA of £57per fortnight.  In view of the Disregarded Earnings limit increasing under UC, it would appear that she would be better off.  Is there any disadvantage to her asking to be transferred to UC as soon as possible that anyone might know, other than having to manage her money monthly, needing a bank account.?

Unless UC is being rolled out in your area, then the answer is - NO

But don’t forget if your client can claim UC then they will be obliged to look for more work and they may well be sanctioned if they cannot increase their hours of work or pay.

There’s no process planned for “asking for transfer”.

People will either move as a result of a change of circumstances or as a part of the planned migration; otherwise it will be a new claim, for those in appropriate circumstances.  This is only in areas where UC will be in operation for those groups of claimants.

On the broader issue, there can be dramatically different levels of benefit entitlement across the different systems - current, UC, PC, PC+, PC-New, DLA, PIP, CTS, housing costs - over the next years.  That may open up opportunities and dangers around physical migration, interruption of claims and changes of circumstance, all of which will make life easier for advisers as part of the new simple system. Add on the different conditionality rules and claims processes around the various situations and it becomes more difficult, often, to decide better-off questions with certainty.

In this example, mathematically, your client will get more money under current UC rules, assuming a lot including year round work, some housing cost and no family, but taking advantage of that is not so easy.