Credit where credit is due?
Universal Credit rates are rising, but there are exceptions and caveats, as Paul Lewis explains.
Big changes will start to be seen this month in universal credit – the benefit paid to more than 6.5 million low-paid and non-working households.
The adult rates of Universal Credit are rising by about 6.2% instead of the 3.8% which applies to most other benefits. This 2.4% uplift raises rates for people aged 25+ to £424.90 a month (if you’re single) and £666.97 (for a couple).
The biggest change is for parents with more than two children. For the last nine years no benefit was paid for any third or further child born 6 April 2017 or later. There were a few exemptions but normally the two-child limit gave a parent with three, four, five or more children the same money for them all as that paid for two children. That rule ended on 6 April. The government says the annual cost of £2.5 billion will lift 450,000 children out of poverty. The current amount paid for each child is £303.94 a month. However, some will not get all the extra. Another cap has applied since April 2013 which limits the total amount a household can get in benefits – including rent assistance – to £22,020 a year or £25,323 in London.
The changes began from 6 April, but Universal Credit is paid monthly in arrears so no household will be paid the new rates until the end of their first ‘assessment period’ after 5 April. That period normally begins on the date of original claim. The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed that people who claimed on the 6th of a month will get the new rates from 6 April but they will not be paid until 12 May. People who claimed on the 5th of a month will not be paid until 11 June.
People with health or disability issues will see lower rises in the extra money they get. An addition for those with limited capability for work but who are expected to work in the future has been frozen at £158.76 a month. The extra paid to people with worse issues – called LCWRA – is rising by only 1.5% for existing claimants, effectively taking away the uplift on adult rates. It will be halved to £217.26 a month for new claimants.