Do You Have To Claim Universal Credit, Or Can You Stay On The Legacy Benefits?
Universal Credit is taking over from the old-school legacy means-tested benefits:
- Working Tax Credit
- income-related ESA
- income-based JSA
- Income Support
- Child Tax Credit
- Housing Benefit
If you are getting these you can carry on getting them, but you cannot make a new claim.
The only old-school benefits that are still open for new claims are:
- Housing Benefit for women’s refuges and for supported accommodation
- Pension Credit and Housing Benefit for people aged 66 or more.
If you were living and claiming with a partner:
- With ESA, JSA, Income Support and Housing Benefit one partner claimed on behalf of both. If you were the claimant, your ex-partner can be removed from your claim and the claim can continue. If your ex-partner was the claimant you now need to make a claim of your own. You must claim UC.
- With all of the other means-tested benefits both partners were joint-claimants. Separating from your ex-partner means that you now need to make a claim of your own. You must claim UC.
If you were claiming as a single woman (with children or not) and you have moved somewhere new, you do not have to claim Universal Credit if:
- you move somewhere that you are not paying rent, so you don’t need to claim help with the cost of your home, you can transfer your DWP benefits and tax credits to your new address.
- you move into a women’s refuge. You can make a new claim for Housing Benefit for the refuge and register a change the address for your DWP and tax credit claims.
- you move directly from your old rented home to a new rented property in the same council area. You can transfer your old Housing Benefit claim (and your DWP benefit and tax credit) to the new home.
If none of these three bullet points apply then moving to a new place will mean that you have to claim Universal Credit.
If you have to claim Universal Credit, your old DWP benefit can roll-on for two weeks, and you can get a benefit advance to tide-you-over to the first normal payment of UC.
Claiming for Children
Because Universal Credit is taking over from Child Tax Credit you cannot make a new claim for CTC, but if you already have a CTC claim you can carry on getting it.
You can claim Child Benefit and Universal Credit Child Elements for your children.
Child Benefit
Child Benefit says that you can claim for a child if they normally live with you, or if they don’t live with you, but you pay more towards their maintenance than you get in Child Benefit.
It’s often true that more than one person could claim for a child, and the law of Child Benefit has a list to say which claim wins if there are competing claims. The first two point of this list say:
- An existing claim always wins over a new claim for three weeks, then
- a claim by someone who lives with the child always wins over someone who just pays towards their maintenance
Usually women claim Child Benefit, but if a woman lives with a controlling man, he may be the claimant.
If she moves out of that situation and makes a competing claim, her claim will eventually win because she has the child(ren) living with her, but under the first bullet point above, he will keep the Child Benefit for the first three weeks after she claims – unless he surrenders his claim.
Sometimes women who try to make competing claims are told by Child Benefit staff that they cannot do so unless the ex-partner surrenders his claim.
This is wrong.
Although it is true that she will not get Child Benefit for the first three weeks unless he surrenders his claim, she should claim as soon as possible to get her entitlement underway.
Universal Credit and Children
Women getting out of situations of domestic violence are often told by benefits staff that they cannot claim for children unless they also get Child Benefit for them.
This is wrong.
Under the law of Universal Credit, you can claim for a child if they normally live with you – regardless of who gets the Child Benefit.
If the child normally lives with more than one person, the person with main responsibility gets the Universal Credit.
So long as they normally live with you, or you have main responsibility:
- You get the basic child elements and additions for disabled children.
- You get bedrooms for the children in working out your housing costs element.
- Your child-caring responsibilities are taken into account in deciding your work-related requirements – such as whether you have to job-seek
- You can get help with work-related childcare costs..
The Two Child Limit
The two child limit, which applies to Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit, includes exceptions for children born as a result of rape, or children conceived during a coercive or controlling relationship. The details are included in this post.
The two child limit does not apply to Child Benefit.
Work Related Requirements and the DV Easement
If you claim Universal Credit you may have to meet:
- The Work Focussed Interview Requirement
- The Work Preparation Requirement
- The Work Search Requirement and the Work Availability Requirement
The DWP calls this the DV Easement
The law of Universal Credit says that domestic violence means any incident, or pattern of incidents, of controlling behaviour, coercive behaviour, violence or abuse, including but not limited to: psychological abuse; physical abuse; sexual abuse; emotional abuse; or financial abuse.
This rule only applies only if:
- The abuse was inflicted or threatened in the last six months.
- The abuse was inflicted or threatened by a partner, former partner or family member.
- You have notified the DWP about the domestic violence.
- This rule has not applied to you in the 12 months before you notify the DWP.
- On the date of the notification you are not living at the same address as the person who inflicted or threatened the domestic violence.
- As soon as possible, within one month of the notification, you provide evidence from “a person acting in an official capacity” to support your account.
A person acting in an official capacity means a health care professional, a police officer, a registered social worker, the claimant’s employer, a representative of the claimant’s trade union, or any public, voluntary or charitable body which has had direct contact with the claimant in connection with domestic violence.
An almost identical rule applies to women who are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance from before Universal Credit arrived.
Claiming For The Home That You Have Left
Normally you have to be living in a property to claim Housing Benefit or Universal Credit Housing Costs Element for it.
If you have temporarily left your home because of fear of violence you can claim Housing Benefit or UC Housing Costs Element for it for upto a year.
If you are paying rent for your temporary accommodation (such as a refuge) you can get benefit for both properties at the same time.
The rules for Universal Credit and the rules for Housing Benefit are slightly different, but the basic effect is the same.
Notice Periods
The one-year rules only apply for temporary absences where you intend to return to your normal home.
If you decide not to return to your normal home the temporary absence rule no longer applies, but you may have to pay rent for a notice period.
If you are getting Housing Benefit for your former home, this can continue for four further weeks to cover the notice period.
Universal Credit does not have a similar rule. You will not get any Housing Costs Element for your former home for the assessment period in which you decide not to return to it.
Shared LHA – The Domestic Abuse Exception
If you are a single childless private renter under the age of 35 your Housing Benefit or Universal Credit Housing Costs Element is usually limited to the Local Housing Allowance for a room in a shared property. Here is a complete list of LHAs
Under a relatively new rule (October 2022) you are exempt from the shared accommodation rate of LHA if, since you turned 16, you have had domestic violence inflicted or threatened by a partner, former partner or relative.
If this applies the one-bedroom accommodation rate of LHA will be used in deciding your claim.
To get this exception applied to your claim you must provide evidence from a person acting in an official capacity to say that your circumstances are consistent with having experienced domestic violence.
Some Legal Definitions:
Domestic violence means any incident, or pattern of incidents, of controlling behaviour, coercive behaviour, violence or abuse, including but not limited to, psychological abuse; physical abuse; sexual abuse; emotional abuse; or financial abuse regardless of the gender or sexuality of the victim.
Coercive behaviour means an act of assault, humiliation or intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish or frighten the victim.
Controlling behaviour means an act designed to make a person subordinate or dependent by isolating them from sources of support, exploiting their resources and capacities for personal gain, depriving them of the means needed for independence, resistance or escape or regulating their everyday behaviour.
A person acting in an official capacity means a health care professional, a police officer, a registered social worker, your employer, or any public, voluntary, or charitable body which has had direct contact with you in connection with domestic violence.
Domestic Violence and Domestic Abuse
Most commonly, domestic violence is a problem created by men inflicted on women.
On average, a woman is killed by a man every three days.
Of course, domestic violence and abuse occur in other contexts.
The rules described in this post apply regardless of sex or gender, and regardless of sexuality.