Thread by @joannamyoung

I’m a Universal Credit adviser at Citizens Advice. Mr Gove says on #marr that people on low incomes can live off a #UniversalCredit top up. However this depends on your circumstances. Thread.

1. If you have savings or capital over £16k then you aren’t eligible. Period. If you have savings or capital over £6000 then for every £250 you will lose £4.25 per month of UC.

2. If you have a mortgage to pay you aren’t eligible for help with your housing costs. For those who have saved up to get a deposit together and then find themselves without help, this can be hard to hear.

3. There is something called ‘support for mortgage interest’ or SMI which you can apply for after waiting for 39 weeks but if you do any work during the waiting period the clock resets.

If you applied for UC today then you would receive your first payment, if you are eligible, around 25th November. That’s the five week wait which doesn’t help if you are earning 2/3 of your wages now.

Universal Credit is a household benefit. That means that your household income is taken into account and that if you have a partner, they have to apply too, even if they are working full time. If they earn too much, you aren’t eligible for UC.

The standard element for a single person is £409.89 per month but if you are under 25 it’s £342.72. That doesn’t help if you still have the same expenses as someone over 25. The pandemic is disproportionately affecting younger people.

For more detail and information about UC and the pandemic, follow the excellent @resfoundation who have loads of information on this topic.

Don’t forget that come March, the chancellor is planning to REDUCE UC rates again back to what they were at the start of the year. This will push millions into deeper poverty.