Claiming expenses and universal credit

[QuickGuide]

I have a member of staff who does some driving on business and who claims mileage as an expense.

This is processed through our payroll provider and clearly designated as reimbursement of expenses on payslips. As such, no tax or NI is paid on it.

UC are telling her that this counts as income in the assessment of her UC claim. She's phoned them, I've phoned them and we've both been told this is correct, but it seems so wrong to me that I wonder if the call handler fully understood the situation.

Or is it really the case that claiming back expenses incurred through work counts as income for UC claims?

For this member of staff it's occasional small amounts but for some low income workers eg home care it must make a substantial difference?

Anyone?

Hi yes its correct thats how UC view it

Seriously?

That makes no sense. It's reimbursement for the cost of using your own car for business.

Assuming your employer pays in accordance with the HMRC guidelines it doesn't need to be declared for tax purposes and the rate hasn't increased for decades so hardly overly generous.

Just looked on Turn 2 Us, and they're not counted as income but sometimes employers incorrectly report expenses so, it can be done in error.

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Universal-Credit-income-and-capital/Earnings#:~:text=If%20you%20have%20deductions%20from,t%20be%20treated%20as%20earnings.

These expenses are definitely being reported properly, but the UC people say they count as income.