The Universal Credit

The Government wants to bring in a new benefit call the 'Universal Credit' from April 2013. This will bring all out-of-work and in-work benefits together.

The key aim of the Universal Credit is that it will make work pay. It aims to do this through enabling you keep more of your earnings when you first start working.

There are several ways that the Universal Credit will be desgined that impact on families with disabled children:

- Families with someone in reciept of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or the benefit replacing it, Personal Independence Payments (PIP) will not be subject to the benefit cap. However the benefit cap may impact on families with a disabled child where the child is over the age of 18 or doesn't qualify for DLA. See our briefing for more information.

- Lone parent families with a child in receipt of mid or high level DLA for a child will be able to continue receiving income support without work related requirements.

-Families working fewer than 16 hours will be able to get help with their childcare costs for the first time

- Families with disabled children are exempt from the requirment to work a minimum of 24 hours per week to get the Working Tax Credit. Families one parent is working at least 16 hours a week and the other is entitled to carer's allowance will still be able to get the working Tax Credit. See Contact a Family's news story for more details.

If you want to discuss how the Universal Credit may impact on your benefits please call the Contact a Family, freephone helpline on 0808 808 3555.