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Is it worth complaining or at the very least asking for another opinion?


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My fixed term contract at my recent job ended at the end of July leaving me currently out of work so a couple of weeks ago I applied for Universal Credit.

 

Have had the meeting etc and am now awaiting payment which of course will be several weeks in coming.

Had agreed and signed the claimant commitment, which of course is to understandably search for work and regularly complete this online journal thing and this is now a possible problem that I need advice on.

 

Back in January my elderly mothers sister and best friend both died within 48 hours of each other.

This, like it would anyone, knocked her for six and she has been struggling with things since.

 

Recently however we have become more concerned about her memory and I had booked a GP appointment later this week.

Unfortunately though yesterday she called me in a panic and was feeling extremely ill so we called an Ambulance and Paramedics attended.

 

They I have to say were brilliant and whilst couldn't find anything immediately wrong it was apparent that her blood pressure was all over the place and they suggested that she saw a GP first thing this morning.

 

I took her as she can't drive and without going into boring detail her GP is sending her for tests and also they are booking her in for memory tests etc so right now she is in a bit of a state and is unable to do much for herself.

 

I want to and will help her 100% as hopefully anyone would do for their family but it is going to be time consuming and whilst that doesn't bother me one bit I am now on top of everything else worried it will affect my UC claim if I can't match the number of hours job search in my claimant commitment and obviously that would leave me with no money coming in.

 

I am going to be pretty much "on call" for quite a while until we can find out what is going on and then decisions may have to be made about such things as possibly moving mum into care so the timescale is unpredictable.

 

I have read about sanctions for three years etc and other worrying rules if you don't adhere to the requirements of your commitment so I really don't know what to do and therefore would really appreciate any advice in this matter.

 

Thank you.

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As long as you can meet the minimum requirements in terms of job search & application, how many hours per week you are available is irrelevant.

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Exactly. Work searches and applications are not time measured. Who is to say how long it took to write out an application or search for jobs online.

 

To sanction you, the Job Centre Work Coach would have to explain how you failed to meet work search commitments. Obviously if you showed no evidence or failed to attend the Job Centre, you would open yourself to being sanctioned

 

In regard to your situation, advise your Work Coach and if necessary they can tailor your commitment to suit your situation.

 

If your mother is diagnosed with a condition requiring care, then you should apply for Carers Allowance. Universal Credit also has Carers element if you were to care for 35 hours + a week and then you won't have to search for work. But to get carers element, your mother needs to be claiming a health related benefit or you need to be claiming carers allowance.

We could do with some help from you.

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Thank you.

My work coach had put down 25 hours a week work search on my commitment, reduced from 35 hours to be fair to her as I am doing some voluntary work, but my concerns would be like last Friday for instance where Mum had some sort of a breakdown and I had to stay with her therefore having to cancel my Voluntary work for the afternoon.

 

It's going to be up in the air for a while especially with the 8 week wait for memory tests.

If it's just grief related due to her friend and sisters passing along with older age maybe she will either improve or stay the same, but if it's the first signs of dementia of some sort things will obviously get worse but as I say we have to wait 8 weeks for that and then a wait for the results,.

I have an appointment at the JC next Tuesday, would you wait until then or contact my work coach earlier?

 

Obviously I guess this also brings up the question on how honest I am at any interview I get on how I am pretty much on call with mums health right now.

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I had to stay with her therefore having to cancel my Voluntary work for the afternoon.

 

Assuming you arranged this voluntary work without any instruction or assistance from the JCP, you can not be sanctioned for the cancellation. If it was a JCP mandated placement, then there is a possibility that a benefit doubt could be raised.

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Going to have a long chat with my work coach on Tuesday about things and see if she can tailor my commitments to the current situation as after seeing a GP this week it looks like mum may be in the first stages of some kind of dementia which is going to make life very difficult. If the work coach can't I may just have to pull out of a claim for UC because so much time is going to be spent helping out mum looking into tests and appointments etc I doubt I will be able to have the time to keep my commitments over the next god knows how long and the last thing I need is a sanction.

 

 

I'm not getting any money anyway!! Not sure if someone can help on this because I have absolutely no idea what's going on with Universal Credit?

 

 

I finished work on the 24/7 and I was told by the DWP helpline to claim asap so I did the online forms on 18/7 a week before I finished but I couldn't complete the online form because you couldn't put a future date in as finishing work. My UC interview was scheduled for 25/7 but this was changed to 26/7 as I had a job interview in 25th. The rest of the online form was completed on 26/7 such sections as work and earnings, document upload etc. For some reason they couldn't do much at the meeting on 26/7 so had to rearrange for 30/7, I think it may have had something to do with the form not being fully completed so I had my first full commitments meeting on 30/7 and have been completing that journal thing since and have another meeting on Tuesday.

 

 

This morning I received two emails stating -

 

 

"Please sign in to your Universal Credit account and check your Journal for a notification relating to your claim."

"You need to accept your commitments before we can make any payments to you.

Please sign in to your online Universal Credit account and go to Accept commitments in your to-do list."

 

 

One message was about a message about "benefits that affect Universal Credit" and the other was about "reduced payments (sanctions)" stating stuff like "Your payment can be reduced if you don't keep a commitment. This is known as a sanction. The amount depends on what you failed to do and how often you've been sanctioned in the past year." All a bit out of the blue and abrupt because I have previously accepted my commitments and nothing has changed bar my mothers situation but I still log in to the account every day and enter information on the log so not sure if it was a generic thing or some sort of warning?!

 

 

I then looked on the payment page and saw the messages -

 

 

Your payment this month is £0 This will be paid by 8pm on 24 August 2018

Your payment is based on what you've told us and covers the period between 18 July and 17 August.

 

 

Standard allowance

You receive a standard Universal Credit allowance each month

£317.82

 

 

Total before adjustments

£317.82

 

 

Take-home pay

Take-home pay is what's left after tax, National Insurance and any pension contributions have been deducted.

Take-home pay breakdown for XXXXXXXXXXEarnings reported by your employer£1,504.55 The amount we'll use to work out your Universal credit is £1,504.55

Your total take-home pay for this period is £1,504.55

Every £1.00 you earn in take-home pay reduces your Universal Credit by 63 pence.

 

The total we take off for take home pay is £947.87

 

Total adjustments

We have adjusted your payment based on the details you gave us. This includes adjustments for any income you receive which is not take-home pay as well as adjustments for any capital you may have.

If you need help with this, please call xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Total adjustments

 

 

 

£947.87

 

So does this mean I receive nothing because of the wages stated above that were paid on 24th July?

It states that the period it is mentioning is between 18 July and 17 August and whilst I accept I'll receive nothing from 18/7 - 24/7 as I was still at work the period 25/7 till 17/8 I haven't been working and therefore haven't been paid?!

 

 

Do they expect that you live off a months wages that were paid in arrears and then pay you a benefit paid in arears at a later date or something>?!

 

 

If someone can explain this I would appreciate it because I haven't got a clue if I will receive anything or when!!!!!

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Work earning paid during an assessment period will be taken into account.

 

Next assessment period, if no earnings, you will receive a UC payment.

 

Accept your commitments by the deadline or the claim will be closed.

 

Discuss your commitments with Job Centre Work Coach when you see them.

 

You can't claim anything carer related, unless your Mum qualifies for a relevant benefit. Suggest you get advice from Citizens Advice or Age UK charity.

 

You might have to balance any care for your Mum between you working, with your Mum paying to receive care. Local council may be able to advise on what care is available locally.

 

This link re carers allowance might be useful

 

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/financial-support/help-with-benefits/carers-allowance?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-pSa1Lv23AIVa7XtCh2R1wNjEAAYAiAAEgKPC_D_BwE

We could do with some help from you.

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It has nothing to do with whether it covers you.

 

UC is all about assessment periods.

So if employers record earnings with HMRC during an assessment period, UC should receive this earnings data from HMRC and take it into account.

We could do with some help from you.

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  • 9 months later...

Hi all back again and another wonderful battle with the delightful JCP and DWP brewing and once again I am in need of the great advice you receive here.

 

Mum hasn't been at all well in recent months culminating in her being rushed to hospital around 5 weeks ago. 

For the last few months as her memory has deteriorated I have been trying to juggle my 35 hour a week work search commitments along with various interviews side by side with helping mum out with every facet of her life. 

 

I am pretty sure that the jobs I have missed out on are partially down to an employer realising that you are caring for your parent and are on call which doesn't exactly shout "full commitment" to the cause but that is another story.  However since mum has been in hospital where she as well as battling dementia has picked up delirium, a UTI and gout amongst other things and has gone downhill badly. 

 

It's bad enough seeing your mum fade away in front of your eyes but constant communication with Doctors, Social Workers, Utilities et all along with my Universal Credit Commitments has left me absolutely drained and pretty close to the edge myself. 

 

The irony is I only found out today that every aspect of dealing with a dementia parent's life would have possibly qualified me as a carer and able to claim carers allowance rather than UC but no one has mentioned this to me until today!!

 

I fortunately came into a bit of capital a couple of months ago (without it I'd be done for) so each month I have to go with my bank statement to the Job Centre. 

On Wednesday this week I explained about mum and said that we had now been given the green light by the authorities that mum no longer has capacity and that now she is close to being medically fit we have now been told that she will be unable to return home and full dementia care is needed which I have been saying for months but again that's another story! 

 

I explained that the last 5 weeks have been exhausting juggling mum's situation and the work search commitments and now that a lot of time will be spent finding and looking at care homes, getting financial advice on how we pay for it, assessing if we can rent her house out and working out what to do with all the belongings in the house amongst plenty of other tasks on the list I wondered if there was a possibility that I could be given a few weeks grace and may be able to have a temporary reduced commitment schedule.  Bearing in mind that I have quite a bit of work lined up for July and August when mum will hopefully be settled somewhere.

 

The advisor (I hate the word coach - a coach teaches you something!) looked at me rather perplexed and said that I had no commitments as I was working full time! 

I explained that that was wrong (should have kept my mouth shut!) and I had no idea how they had come to that conclusion and that I do have two employers but it is temporary sporadic work along with voluntary that has varied from month to month.  She then said quite abruptly that I would have to have a commitment review.  I had no idea and had been completing my Journal etc the same as I always had - turns out I didn't need to!!!

 

So Thursday I had a Commitment Review and saw the advisor who had obviously ballsed up my commitments last time. 

I asked her if it was possible for a temporary reduction and she basically said no. 

 

She stated that they would only consider that if I was a carer and getting carers allowance which confused me because I had no idea that you can get carers allowance and Universal Credit (albeit a reduced rate) and if you can then I missed the boat there didn't I?!?!?!? 

Basically typical DWP, no empathy and just wanting to tick boxes and they returned my commitments to about as high as you get!

 

I called the CAB and they advised me that if I didn't agree with the advisors decision I could take up a complaint with the DWP themselves but I am really not sure if it's worth going down that road as it would come out as a complaint against the advisor and I have to see them again in two weeks for a work search review and the last thing you want to do is annoy them. 

 

I'm not sure if even just calling the DWP and asking if a temporary reduction is at all possible as again it's going over the advisors head. 

So I am at a loss at what to do because 35 hours work search and about the same time dealing with mum's situation is slowly affecting my health and sanity. 

And the irony is if I had known that carers allowance was claimable then I probably wouldn't be up **** creek without a paddle!

 

Help!!!!

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don't think you can get the £65 Carers unless YOU are actually looking after her +35hours a week.

her being in hospital or a care home does not qualify you for that.

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Thank you, Yeah I meant prior to all this happening,.  According to my local care advice line all things with regard to care count from dealing with a persons paperwork, finances, phone calls, taking them shopping, driving them to appointments the whole shebang.  I always just assumed it was care in the home that counted but too late for that now as hospital and live in care comes into play as you say.

Edited by Max1968
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With UC, if there are any work earnings details being received by UC, then if your earnings are above about £400 a month, you would be in light touch-in work, without any work search requirements and therefore no regular Jobcentre appointments. If you earned enough to be above a conditional earnings threshold which was aboout £950 a month, then you would be in a working enough category, so no Jobcentre appointments required at all.

 

Because UC is a Universal type benefit for people in and out of work, the benefit is adjustable depending on your circumstances. If you stopped any paid work, it is up to you to report this change through your online UC claim. You would then have a to-do action to book a Job Centre appointment.

 

I suspect that you have had some earnings previously and these have reduced recently. You have not officially reported that you are not working at all. So you contact the Jobcentre and they see your work circumstances have changed, so issue a work search commitment. The commitment cannot be reduced from 35 hour per week work search, unless you have a health condition, your caring activity is officially recorded with your Mum in receipt of a disability benefit or you have children under a certain age.

 

Carers Allowance is only payable if the person being cared for is in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit. Check the Government website about Carers Allowance. If you claimed carers allowance, this would be deducted from UC claim. But you can register caring activity on UC claim and receive an extra Carers element on UC claim. The work search commitment would be cancelled and you would be in no work related requirements, so no Job Centre appointments.

 

As stated by dx, there is the 35 hours or more caring per week for the caring benefits. And your commitment won't be changed, if you are not officially a carer.

We could do with some help from you.

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Thanks Uncle Bulgaria that's where the confusion on commitments arose probably. 

 

I saw a really good advisor back in January due to the capital I received which is above £6000 so have to take the bank statements in. 

 

I did remind him that my hours and earnings fluctuate but because they fluctuate month to month (ie one month it may be £400, the next £350 the next £20 and so on) he said not to worry about it and only declare any changes to my situation if I came into permanent full time work. 

 

No-one mentioned that if I had a couple of dry months work wise I had to report it and as I said I or they were none the wiser until I asked for a review so it's obviously a case of one advisor advising one thing and another another!! 

 

I'll probably end up getting sanctioned for that now!!! 

I also had a couple of tax rebates which decreased my UC for a couple of months and as you say UC have always received my earnings month by month. 

 

The awkward situation is that I have quite a bit of work scheduled for July and August. 

 

If an advisor insisted for instance I had to take a job next week that was offered I would have to cancel all that work in July/August.

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Sorry but it is not awkward at all. If you apply for other work, you tell any employers that you have work commitments in July/August and they either offer you work in June or they don't. And if employers are really keen to employ you, they might offer you a better contract, so you end up taking that instead of the one already lined up.

 

All the Job Centre want of you, is to show evidence of meeting your commitment, when you attend any work search appointment. 

 

Job Centre appointments are unlikely to be regular anyway. With staff holidays, I suspect it won't be once a fortnight.

We could do with some help from you.

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Hi.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your mum, dementia is very hard to deal with. Once she's settled in a home you should feel a sense of relief that she's being looked after full time. I know this isn't the direct topic of this thread, but have you looked into Attendance Allowance? My mother received that and they even sent someone to see her in hospital to fill in the forms.

 

She had capacity at the time though, I'm not sure how it works for someone with diagnosed dementia.

 

HB

Illegitimi non carborundum

 

 

 

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Worth lkooking at the Attendance Allowance especially if you can't find a suitable care home in the interim.

We could do with some help from you.

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Thank you all.  Yep already sorted Attendance Allowance a while ago but have to let them know again Monday as mum is still currently in hospital so she won't be paid for certain weeks, but what I didn't know is once in care she can claim it again even though she is self funding.  I think I'm just about on top of things with her affairs but now the statements has come through I can activate the LPA's.  I just hoped that the DWP would give people a bit of grace with their commitments with say a family emergency and with dealing with all mum's affairs at the moment it's like she has died (which she has in many ways).  Even if they said ok just do 15 hours a week but we can only allow you half UC payment that would be fine it's just that they never seem to budge on anything.  I have only had two full payments in 8 months due to working bits and tax rebates so four weeks grace doesn't seem too much to ask.

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Just now, Max1968 said:

Thank you all.  Yep already sorted Attendance Allowance a while ago but have to let them know again Monday as mum is still currently in hospital so she won't be paid for certain weeks, but what I didn't know is once in care she can claim it again even though she is self funding.  I think I'm just about on top of things with her affairs but now the statements has come through I can activate the LPA's.  I just hoped that the DWP would give people a bit of grace with their commitments with say a family emergency and with dealing with all mum's affairs at the moment it's like she has died (which she has in many ways) is so time consuming. Even if they said ok just do 15 hours a week work search but we can only allow you half UC payment that would be fine it's just that they never seem to budge on anything.  I have only had two full payments in 8 months due to working bits and tax rebates so four weeks grace doesn't seem too much to ask.

 

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The issue here is whether the Work Coach is allowed by Government/DWP rules to change your commitment terms. At the moment, there is nothing stated in your posts that would allow this. The reason the discretion to tailor basic commitment terms is limited, is to avoid accusations of special treatment being given.  If you found a friend with exactly the same situation, only had a 10 hour work search, you would be arguing about not being given equal treatment.

 

What can happen, is the work coach can consider your personal issues when looking at whether you have met your commitment. So if you had a emergency, where you were not able to work search is that you provide full details and they take it into account. Just try to show evidence of some work searching and applications. 

 

The other issue you raise about assessment periods and earnings/tax rebates affecting you, is not something for UC or Job Centre. That is about Government policy and you would have to take that up via your MP.

We could do with some help from you.

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