Benefits

M

Matesrates

Well-known member
I’ve worked all my life and never claimed benefits, I have 4 children and 12 grandchildren, 5 of whom are of working age and all do so. Unfortunately,one of my children, 45 years old, has suffered with mental health issues, caused by a marriage breakdown and she has bipolar. She’s therefore on universal credit, esa and pip. She wants to work and started in a hairdressers two days a week to get used to working again, with the intention of building up to full time.. She‘s just washing hair, making tea etc, but she’s now been told her benefits will be affected and she will be worse off if she continues working.

I was under the impression that you could work up to 15/16 hours without benefits being affected, but apparently not so. The system is clearly wrong, there’s no incentive for people to return to work, unless they’re capable of earning more working.
 
Matesrates said:
I’ve worked all my life and never claimed benefits, I have 4 children and 12 grandchildren, 5 of whom are of working age and all do so. Unfortunately,one of my children, 45 years old, has suffered with mental health issues, caused by a marriage breakdown and she has bipolar. She’s therefore on universal credit, esa and pip. She wants to work and started in a hairdressers two days a week to get used to working again, with the intention of building up to full time.. She‘s just washing hair, making tea etc, but she’s now been told her benefits will be affected and she will be worse off if she continues working.

I was under the impression that you could work up to 15/16 hours without benefits being affected, but apparently not so. The system is clearly wrong, there’s no incentive for people to return to work, unless they’re capable of earning more working.
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Assuming she will be getting paid at least minimum wage then will she lose more than £700 of benefits a month?

Edit: sorry I think I might have misread that? How much does she lose by taking the job?
 
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Matesrates said:
I’ve worked all my life and never claimed benefits, I have 4 children and 12 grandchildren, 5 of whom are of working age and all do so. Unfortunately,one of my children, 45 years old, has suffered with mental health issues, caused by a marriage breakdown and she has bipolar. She’s therefore on universal credit, esa and pip. She wants to work and started in a hairdressers two days a week to get used to working again, with the intention of building up to full time.. She‘s just washing hair, making tea etc, but she’s now been told her benefits will be affected and she will be worse off if she continues working.

I was under the impression that you could work up to 15/16 hours without benefits being affected, but apparently not so. The system is clearly wrong, there’s no incentive for people to return to work, unless they’re capable of earning more working.
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She will lose some benefit but with UC it’s tapered and you should never be worse off.
 
I’m not sure of the amount she’s worse off, but it doesn’t just affect universal credit, her esa is affected as well. It’s a shame because she needs it for her mental health.
 
The best path to take is voluntary work to build yourself up which in practice means charity shops. At least you have learned, if you didn't know already, how punative the benefits system is. I still work because I'm terrified of that system and have the contacts to do so. I help service servers for 12 hours a day and people understand if I sleep through a lot of it because I'm a charity case I'm employed because people I have helped in the past pity me. Naturally I work cheap but it's better than dealing with those ghouls at the DWP.
 
Matesrates said:
I’ve worked all my life and never claimed benefits, I have 4 children and 12 grandchildren, 5 of whom are of working age and all do so. Unfortunately,one of my children, 45 years old, has suffered with mental health issues, caused by a marriage breakdown and she has bipolar. She’s therefore on universal credit, esa and pip. She wants to work and started in a hairdressers two days a week to get used to working again, with the intention of building up to full time.. She‘s just washing hair, making tea etc, but she’s now been told her benefits will be affected and she will be worse off if she continues working.

I was under the impression that you could work up to 15/16 hours without benefits being affected, but apparently not so. The system is clearly wrong, there’s no incentive for people to return to work, unless they’re capable of earning more working.
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You can work up to 16 hours, but any income is offset against the benefit. That is why they call it an income based assessment.
 
UC was a great idea when first thought up, i.e. you get what you need, not just £x because you have a certain condition.

Sadly it was never introduced properly ,- means test every claimant, and award based on need.
 
Just to be clear, my daughter was forced to move south by her multi million pound ex husband, who went to court to have his children closer to him. The money isn’t his, he met his ridiculously wealthy partner two years ago and he’s living the dream.

The cost of living there is massively higher than here, yet her benefits remain the same. As an example, she had reduced council tax here, only £12 a month, down there there’s no council tax reduction scheme, so she’s paying full wack, green bin, £35 here, £75 there, plus of course everything is way more expensive than here.
 
Luckily, I’ve never been in the position where I’ve had to claim benefits. Earlier this year though, my younger son suggested we claim Attendance Allowance for dad. He has heart failure, A.F. and incurable prostate cancer, together with some of the ailments normally associated with a nearly 99 year old. I thought sod it, I’ve been supporting him for the past seven years for hours and hours each week, so why not?

To my pleasant surprise he was awarded the top rate with no quibbling, whatsoever. Not a fortune by any means, but it feels like some kind of acknowledgment somehow..
 
Matesrates said:
Just to be clear, my daughter was forced to move south by her multi million pound ex husband, who went to court to have his children closer to him. The money isn’t his, he met his ridiculously wealthy partner two years ago and he’s living the dream.

The cost of living there is massively higher than here, yet her benefits remain the same. As an example, she had reduced council tax here, only £12 a month, down there there’s no council tax reduction scheme, so she’s paying full wack, green bin, £35 here, £75 there, plus of course everything is way more expensive than here.
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How did they force her to move ? That’s out of order surely.
 
TotallyTangerine said:
Luckily, I’ve never been in the position where I’ve had to claim benefits. Earlier this year though, my younger son suggested we claim Attendance Allowance for dad. He has heart failure, A.F. and incurable prostate cancer, together with some of the ailments normally associated with a nearly 99 year old. I thought sod it, I’ve been supporting him for the past seven years for hours and hours each week, so why not?

To my pleasant surprise he was awarded the top rate with no quibbling, whatsoever. Not a fortune by any means, but it feels like some kind of acknowledgment somehow..
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Good to hear that 👌
 
Matesrates said:
I’ve worked all my life and never claimed benefits, I have 4 children and 12 grandchildren, 5 of whom are of working age and all do so. Unfortunately,one of my children, 45 years old, has suffered with mental health issues, caused by a marriage breakdown and she has bipolar. She’s therefore on universal credit, esa and pip. She wants to work and started in a hairdressers two days a week to get used to working again, with the intention of building up to full time.. She‘s just washing hair, making tea etc, but she’s now been told her benefits will be affected and she will be worse off if she continues working.

I was under the impression that you could work up to 15/16 hours without benefits being affected, but apparently not so. The system is clearly wrong, there’s no incentive for people to return to work, unless they’re capable of earning more working.
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You're right Mates. It's not the benefits that are wrong - applied correctly they are important. It's when people who want to work and are caught by the benefits trap, that it becomes disheartening. In practical terms you need a poster who has worked in DWP on the working age benefits side.
 
TotallyTangerine said:
Luckily, I’ve never been in the position where I’ve had to claim benefits. Earlier this year though, my younger son suggested we claim Attendance Allowance for dad. He has heart failure, A.F. and incurable prostate cancer, together with some of the ailments normally associated with a nearly 99 year old. I thought sod it, I’ve been supporting him for the past seven years for hours and hours each week, so why not?

To my pleasant surprise he was awarded the top rate with no quibbling, whatsoever. Not a fortune by any means, but it feels like some kind of acknowledgment somehow..
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Fair play to you.
In America you can apply to the government for a paid job as a carer for parents who might otherwise have to go into a government funded home.
Seems like a good idea to me.
 
todayistheday said:
Unbelievable, you see them smoking, getting pissed up, playing golf in Turkey and on the Costa dels, the system is fuked, you either work or sign on the dole. Oh our johnny needs a little extra because of his mental health problems and a bit of gout, tell the fukker to book himself into a mental hospital, they will sort you out.
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You can’t — would take about 2 years to book an appointment

There‘s lefty of people with Health problems of all ages.

And if you think they are benefit abusers report them — they will get investigated
But be wary what you see isn’t always a clear picture

I think you‘ll find the biggest fraudsters were the Gov with theirvunchecked Housibg Benefit payments and the unchecked business payments they dished out under Covid
 
That sounds very sensible!

He’s determined to live (and die) at home so I’m doing all I can to help him. Have to admit it’s tough at times as he lives in Hest Bank, so it involves a lot of driving. The constant hold ups on the M6 seriously piss me off but he’s a brilliant dad and fully deserves my help…
 
TotallyTangerine said:
That sounds very sensible!

He’s determined to live (and die) at home so I’m doing all I can to help him. Have to admit it’s tough at times as he lives in Hest Bank, so it involves a lot of driving. The constant hold ups on the M6 seriously piss me off but he’s a brilliant dad and fully deserves my help…
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Lovely that mate. All the best.
 
TotallyTangerine said:
Luckily, I’ve never been in the position where I’ve had to claim benefits. Earlier this year though, my younger son suggested we claim Attendance Allowance for dad. He has heart failure, A.F. and incurable prostate cancer, together with some of the ailments normally associated with a nearly 99 year old. I thought sod it, I’ve been supporting him for the past seven years for hours and hours each week, so why not?

To my pleasant surprise he was awarded the top rate with no quibbling, whatsoever. Not a fortune by any means, but it feels like some kind of acknowledgment somehow..
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Habe you looked into whether the AA award might additionally qualify him for any Pension Credit? If you want to know more about that, DM me and I'll give you any help & info I can, given I recently took early retirement after 15 years working in disability benefits for DWP

Same offer applies for any members who have any questions about disability benefits
 
TotallyTangerine said:
Luckily, I’ve never been in the position where I’ve had to claim benefits. Earlier this year though, my younger son suggested we claim Attendance Allowance for dad. He has heart failure, A.F. and incurable prostate cancer, together with some of the ailments normally associated with a nearly 99 year old. I thought sod it, I’ve been supporting him for the past seven years for hours and hours each week, so why not?

To my pleasant surprise he was awarded the top rate with no quibbling, whatsoever. Not a fortune by any means, but it feels like some kind of acknowledgment somehow..
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you will be entitled to Carers Allowance. Get it claimed.
 
Westby said:
you will be entitled to Carers Allowance. Get it claimed.
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As long as he's caring for 35+ hrs per week, not earning more than £139 a week from employment or self-employment and hasn't been out of the country for more than 52 weeks in the 156 weeks prior to the date he wants to claim from (he could potentially claim from the Monday of the week. His father has been awarded attendance allowance from)

Additionally If he receives a state pension of more than 76.75 a week, he won't receive payment of careers allowance but will just get underlying entitlement (which would increase the amount of any pension credits he received). If he received a state pension of less than 76.75 a week, he would receive the difference.
 
April13th1970 said:
Habe you looked into whether the AA award might additionally qualify him for any Pension Credit? If you want to know more about that, DM me and I'll give you any help & info I can, given I recently took early retirement after 15 years working in disability benefits for DWP

Same offer applies for any members who have any questions about disability benefits
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Hi, thanks very much. I’ll have a look into that..
 
April13th1970 said:
As long as he's caring for 35+ hrs per week, not earning more than £139 a week from employment or self-employment and hasn't been out of the country for more than 52 weeks in the 156 weeks prior to the date he wants to claim from (he could potentially claim from the Monday of the week. His father has been awarded attendance allowance from)

Additionally If he receives a state pension of more than 76.75 a week, he won't receive payment of careers allowance but will just get underlying entitlement (which would increase the amount of any pension credits he received). If he received a state pension of less than 76.75 a week, he would receive the difference.
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Hello again,

I’m actually a she!

Yes, I have income which precludes me from claiming carer’s allowance but perhaps your kind advice might benefit another poster on here who’s in a similar situation.

Thanks again! 😀
 
People swinging the lead or having no aspirations further than qualifying for UC is both infuriating and depressing but it's a pretty established fact that we lose far more per year in tax evasion and avoidance than fraudulent welfare claims.

The country needs an investment in social care, with case workers dedicated to finding solutions that can help people into work.

Looking back at my early career, I graduated and got an unpaid internship at my local newspaper. The paper offered a 3 month unpaid contract, after which they'd take a decision as to whether they would offer a job.

At the time I relied on the DSS money to cover living and transportation costs. I explained the situation but because I wasn't 'actively applying for suggested employment' they stopped the allowance.

As a result I've ended up working abroad for 15 years, paying no tax, student loan repayments or social security. I'm sure the UK won't be that arsed, but it's one example of how 'being tough on benefit scroungers' is idiotic. With a bit of compassion and case by case understanding you'd incentivise people like me stay and contribute.
 
April13th1970 said:
Habe you looked into whether the AA award might additionally qualify him for any Pension Credit? If you want to know more about that, DM me and I'll give you any help & info I can, given I recently took early retirement after 15 years working in disability benefits for DWP

Same offer applies for any members who have any questions about disability benefits
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And I used to design the legislation
Nice offer 04/70 - top man
 
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