Universal Credit (Lost your job)

Dear all,

Anyone who does not have income, can apply for Universal Credit (a new benefit substituting/putting in one six old benefits – Income Support,Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance,Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit, Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit)

Universal Credit is divided into two components – Housing Element and Personal Allowance. Housing Element will cover your full housing Costs (rent paid) and Personal Allowance will pay £317 monthly ( £403.67 monthly).

You need to make a claim on: https://www.gov.uk/apply-universal-credit

In the application, you can give the details of your landlord as Kingdom Houses (KH) and provide KH email address. DWP will contact KH to verify the amount of rent paid, details of the tenant etc… if you need any information please request it from KH. Once the rent details will be confirmed you will receive Housing Element directly to your nominated bank account, and you will be required to make that payment to the landlord (KH). If you claim UC and receive Housing Element, but do not make payment for rent, then KH are legally allowed to ask DWP to send Housing Element of your UC claim directly to KH and ask for the deduction from your Personal Allowance towards rent arrears if you have any. (So in other words they will pay your full benefits to KH until the arrears are cleared – this is not an opportunity to receive benefits and not pay your rent. Once you get the allowance you must immediately pay your rent).

If your income changes or you go back to work, you will be required to inform UC as soon as possible to avoid any overpayment. If you need any help/ have any specific questions, please let me know as one of my work colleagues has experience in Welfare Benefit System and I can forward any questions to her.

Please see below a useful information form Universal Credit following the Covid-19 outbreak.

For people who need to make a new claim for financial support

We understand people who are required to stay at home or are infected by coronavirus may need financial support, and quickly.

We announce that:

  • those affected by coronavirus will be able to apply for Universal Credit and can receive up to a month’s advance up front without physically attending a jobcentre

 

Employees and self-employed people

To make sure people in work can take the necessary time off to stay at home if they are suffering from coronavirus or to prevent its spread, changes have been made to Statutory Sick Pay and how Universal Credit supports self-employed claimants.

This includes:

  • people who cannot work due to coronavirus and are eligible for Statutory Sick Pay will get it from day one, rather than from the fourth day of their illness – we intend to legislate so this measure applies retrospectively from 13 March 2020
  • Statutory Sick Pay will be payable to people who are staying at home on government advice, not just those who are infected, from 13 March 2020 after regulations were laid on 12 March 2020 – employers are urged to use their discretion about what evidence, if any, they ask for
  • if employees need to provide evidence to their employer that they need to stay at home due to coronavirus, they will be able to get it from the NHS 111 Online instead of having to get a fit note from their doctor – this is currently under development and will be made available soon
  • self-employed claimants on Universal Credit who are required to stay at home or are ill as a result of coronavirus will not have a Minimum Income Floor (an assumed level of income) applied for a period of time while affected 

Universal Credit for the Self-Employed

 

https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/new-to-universal-credit/self-employment/

From 6 April 2020, we will be temporarily relaxing the Minimum Income Floor for all self-employed claimants affected by the economic impact of Covid-19. This will go further than the previous Budget announcement to temporarily relax the MIF for claimants who are sick or self-isolating in line with government Covid-19 advice. This measure will ensure that self-employed claimants continue to be supported by the benefit system by basing their Universal Credit award on their actual earnings.

We are working flat out to ensure that everyone who makes a new claim has their claim processed and paid on time, alongside ensuring that the system remains stable for those already using it. We are seeing huge demand for our services at this time, and have diverted resource and effort to ensuring that payments take priority. It was good to see this DWP effort so explicitly and publicly recognised by the Chancellor in his speech on Friday. In increasing the standard allowance for everyone by £86.67 a month, Universal Credit is now even more generous than the system it replaces, and is now the main system of welfare for those who need it most. The benefits of a system that can adapt to change in this way can be seen clearly here: old/legacy systems are not safe to adapt in the same way.

https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/coronavirus/

How to claim

Visit https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/make-and-manage-your-claim