Name changed as outing
I was a student nurse and have I qualified 2 weeks ago. My last day of university was 30th august and I started a job as a nurse yesterday .
I am a single parent of 1 DD (aged 6) and have received universal credit throughout my training. I received roughly £320 then this went up when the extra £20 a week was introduced. This was a massive help and covered my rent. As my student finance was taken into account when my Loan is calculated I am having approximately £500 deducted from my claim each month. I have had 0 dealings with universal credit since I made my claim. I had enough out aside to last me for September but needed my claim to be recalculated in order to last October.
So! Here comes the the issue. I notified them on 31st august that my course had ended, that I would be starting a new job and that my claim needed to be recalculated to allow for my new none student status and for the fact that I am no longer receiving funding. I called to ask how I do this and was told to leave a message in my journal. All good, did this. I have absolutely no income now until I get paid on 28th October. I have about £30ish in my bank (NOT a begging thread at all before anyone thinks that. I have plenty of family to help this is purely a UC question)
5th September I had no response so I left another journal message just asking for a response to say my message has been received. Nothing.
8th September, called twice (first person’s computer was down), spoke to an agent who said all he could do was escalate it up to a case manager, that they would action it and recalculate the claim and to not to worry, the claim would be recalculated in time for my next payment (29th). He said I would receive a response from Debbie my case worker within 48 hours.
48 hours pass, no response.
I call again, I am once again told my claim will be sorted and recalculated and not to worry at all. Couple of weeks to buy and I check my payment schedule online and my claim has not been recalculated!!!! Even though I was ASSURED it would be.
I left ANOTHER journal message. No response
Called again and spoke to an agent. It was like talking to a brick wall. She said there was nothing they can do over the phone, no one they can escalate it to, all sbe could do was resend it to my case worker. I asked if I could change case worker as I have had 0 response to any of my messages, her answer was I need to request it in my journal (which is being ignored). I asked if I can see someone face to face. She said I need to book that… by putting a message in my journal. That’s all she could say, put it in your journal. I’ve now sent 6 messages over a 4 week time period and not a single one has been responded to. She once again escalated it to my case worker and told me if I didn’t have a response by 6pm today to call tomorrow, guess what no response.
I am actually astounded by this system. I am lucky that this is my first proper dealing with it and can’t wait till I get paid next month and I can cancel my claim. I despair of what this system must be doing to people, i Am stressed to the max and I’ve only had one month of dealing with it, I can see how people on long term benefits top themselves because they must not get anywhere!
Anyway I will be calling back at 8am tomorrow. I’m not sure what for because I know what they’ll say. Is there ANYTHING else I can do? I’ll be getting a payment of £400ish, my rent is £310. I’ve emailed my housing manager to advise of the situation. I’ve never been this frustrated in my life.
Thanks for reading if you’ve gotten this far 🙈
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Is there ANYTHING else I can do- Universal Credit Help
creditfedit · 27/09/2021 22:44
Right, sorry I see you've checked under "payments" and your next payment due hasn't been recalculated.
You must feel like screaming although I'm not that surprised. I've had great difficulties with UC. We've had to claim because my husband fell off a roof and cannot work at all.
His journal keeps telling him to attend a work search review at the job centre or have his payment cancelled.. he's flat on his back with a broken pelvis and can't bloody walk (as I've reported loads of times on the journal!) There have been huge delays and I've now been told to claim PIP instead although there's a 4 month wait to have that claim processed. Wtf 
Do you have a job centre near you? All I can suggest is going in person and demanding this is sorted? ..even though you don't have an appointment..and you're a single parent.
As a Op suggested, the citizens advice bureau are usually helpful, you can contact them by phone or online.
Good luck.
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Really pleased for you. 
After my own experience with UC, I understand how frustrating it can be..It was obviously an oversight on their part, so well done for persevering. I hope they apologised!
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