Benefit cap uc

[bloom1927]

Hi everyone

came here for some advice as I’m really confused. DH always earns over the threshold so the benefits cap has never applied to us, however the last 2 months he started (well started one and left for a better one) new jobs and his start date got delayed so he earned pretty much pittance. We also have gotten disabled element and carers element added on to our uc this assessment period.DH’s earnings will go back to what they were before continuing forward (full time wage)
uc have now asked us for previous work earnings and I’m really confused as to why their working this out, because we have a disabled child who I care for and get disabled element and carers element for, as well as DH’s earnings going above the threshold again going forward, so would this not make us exempt from any caps? Or is this standard procedure?

If you claim UC you still have to enter your earnings. When they calculate everything, if you are not entitled to UC the statement will be £0. If you are not expecting anything and you receive some, check with UC before spending it as they often make mistakes and you will need to pay it back. Hope this helps

@WhenSunnyGetsBlue thank you, weve always gotten uc as a joint claim for at least the past 3 -4 years and they’ve always calculated it based of DH’s earnings for each month so I know we definitely don’t owe anything, we’ve never had to put in our previous earnings before and haven’t made a new claim etc, just really confused as to whether they can now add the cap due to the last 2 months even though it’s not a permanent Low income and we recieve DLA/carers

If the lower income means you are below the cap for those months you should get UC top up. But if you are above the cap you won't be entitled to anything. Always best to speak to UC as they are the only ones who have all the details to advise. They calculated my UC top up based on my earnings, then three months later I got hit with a letter saying that they got the calculation wrong and I had to pay back nearly £300. So that's why I say double and triple check if there is any change to your circumstances, it can take them a while to get everything together if you are recieving multiple benefits and by the time they do you could end up owing.

Thus isn't about reporting earnings for the current period. For people on PAYE they usually get the information directly from HMRC so the claimant doesn't need to report it.

OP this is because of the grace period on the benefit cap.
https://www.gov.uk/benefit-cap/how-earnings-affect-when-benefit-cap-starts

The benefit cap might not affect your Universal Credit payments for up to 9 months. This is called the ‘grace period’.
You’ll get the grace period if all of the following are true:

• you’re claiming Universal Credit because you stopped working or your earnings went down
• you’re now earning less than £793 a month
• in each of the 12 months before your earnings went down or you stopped working, you earned the same as or more than the earnings threshold

Thank you, it just doesn’t make sense because DH has always earned above £793 and we’ve never had a benefit cap
it’s only been the last 2 months he’s earnt below due to changing jobs and late start date, from now it will be above £793 but not enough to cancel out our uc as we have always had uc alongside DH’s wages (as you said they get the income directly from HMRC and work out our entitlement from that)

we also get disabled element and carers element so will this not cancel out the benefit cap?