Universal Credit won't be paid in months with 5 weeks. (WTF?) AIBU to think no one realises

[raisinsarenottheonlyfruit]

If you get paid weekly, and there are 5 weeks in a month, in those months your pay will likely go over the Universal Credit limit and your UC will be stopped. You will have to go without that month and apply again.

WTF are they thinking?

Have they never heard of averages FFS? (That's how Tax Credits works). This is going to screw over so many people. It's ludricous.

The people claiming UC aren't any richer that month, they get the same amount of money as if it was paid in 12 monthly chunks.

This will happen to thousands of people every time there's a month with 5 weeks. (I guess they mean 5 Mondays?)

This is farcical.

There's 5 weeks in January, so if you get paid weekly that's you fucked for February.

April, July, October and December also have 5 Mondays.

This is utterly farcical and just plain callous.

picklypickles you must write a letter and claim back your phone charges

Give the dates and times you called and how long you were on the phone

I would advise everyone that has incurred costs to do this

It does work

I remember having a letter suggesting overpayments. I get 2 free weeks rent a year but HA still take the money out my bank, I was advised not to ask for the money back but t to keep my account in credit for when UC comes in.

Expat

Many people do overpay their rent each week, some pay five pound others a little more - nothing to do with UC it’s jyst some people want to be ahead as that’s how they tick - it’s done in case

Well, good for them, ivy, but plenty of folks cannot overpay, they simply have no extra money to do so.

Pencils its even more fun when the HA is using the SAP computer system.

But Expat, it isn't just people on UC, everyone has to budget and prepare. Everyone has to pay their rent or mortgage or face the same consequences. Every knew UC was coming in.

'Everyone has to pay their rent or mortgage or face the same consequences. '

Of course they do, but you cannot just magic money out of thin air. If you haven't got money to overpay then you cannot overpay it. Hence, why UC is such a shower of shite because you don't get any money for 6 weeks at a minimum.

Did anyone see Question Time on Thursday. Chief of Next was on there saying ppl should be paid in advance not arrears. Which is completely different from his attitude on a previous appearance on QT. I think he (like many employers will) has realised that a lot of UC claimants (some who may work for Next) are probably going to have to take time off to go down to the JC to sort out UC bureaucratic mess in work time which will be shop/office hours. Or they will have to call the call centre in work hours and hang on the phone waiting. Some of these workers will be the Christmas temps which are still being taken on in many diff shops. IMO i think many employers will now be starting to realize it may affect business. How many retailers are going to want the UC claimants working for them to keep taking time off to sort stuff out, in the run up to Christmas?! The busiest time of the year!!!

Are they seriously suggesting that people have to re-apply every time there is a 5 week month?

What a waste of admin resources and hassle for everyone concerned!

But Expat, it isn't just people on UC, everyone has to budget and prepare. Everyone has to pay their rent or mortgage or face the same consequences. Every knew UC was coming in.
Yes but people cant magic money out of thin air.
I had no idea that if you're on UC and you get paid every 2 or 4 weeks that they stop your money and you have to reapply.
I knew UC was coning in but i had no idea about this

From a review from a HA employee Taken from glass door

"OneSanctuary SAP is the name of a multi-million pound software system brought in by Sanctuary in 2016, designed for use by all areas of the business. It has been an unmitigated failure, and is a huge drawback of working for this company.
The issues caused by SAP are staggering and difficult to keep track of. Because SHA tried to implement SAP in a cost effective manner, they ended up vastly under-investing in critical elements. There is no tailoring of the generically presented system ('vanilla SAP'), which is an issue as social housing is a unique environment from a service delivery and CRM perspective, whereas vanilla SAP is more geared towards providing a solution for manufacturing industries. Thus, the system uses corporate nonsensical buzzwords and methods of handling accounts which absolutely do not reflect industry practice.
Here are just some examples of the more specific issues faced by staff:
No rent statements have been issued since it was implemented in August 2016, and if a resident insists on a rent statement it has to be prepared manually in a spreadsheet.
The rent and calculations for accounts are hard to use, and often completely wrong. Mostly because the system was never designed to understand housing benefit payments, and this has a very convoluted workaround which a computer cannot make sense of.
SAP cannot interface with Local Authorities Housing benefit systems so payments are missed, lost or misattributed.
Direct debits do not work reliably, and for a long time following the implementation did not work at all. Front line staff are now preferring standing order.
The front end system of SAP requires far more testing and money spent on it. Each customer account is a total mess of information, with no discernible way to separate notes left between differing departments, with information left by staff often going into the wrong account entirely. This needs looking at as from a compliance (DPA) point of view the breaches are serious.
From a usability point of view, the view of a customers account within SAP CIC does not display appropriate information to the user (as stated before this is likely because the system was never designed to be used by a HA) and the user often has to go trawling around back end systems to find obviously relevant data (e.g tenancy start date, account balance, property type etc). This is a seemingly minor but considerable waste of resources"

Now throw UC into the mix as well

Because of this system many tenants have been getting letters saying they are in arrears when they are NOT Including pensioners in their 70s on full HB who are nothing to do with UC!!!!!!1

Phone in from emotional landlord on LBC A tenant hasnt recieved any monies for six months.
And tried to end things by turning on all the gas rings IN A FLAT sad This could have blown up a block There has been enough tragedy with Grenfell!!!

Landlord sounds like a decent one.

www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/james-obrien/the-hell-of-universal-credit-by-a-landlord/

"SAP cannot interface with Local Authorities Housing benefit systems so payments are missed, lost or misattributed"

And then it kicks out letters saying tenants are behind with the rent.

I just cannot understand how the government decided UC was a good idea. Not to mention not paying housing benefit directly to the LL. It makes no sense at all, just creates more admin issues and all round headaches for everyone involved.

I’m dreading it on Disabiloty benefits but because of changes to disability tax credits and premiums I will be worse off if I’m well enough to work part time and worse off if I can’t.

No help from Housing Association but threating eviction of we are behind. This year they plagued everyone to start paying extra out of benefits towards rent. I had to agree to £50 a month so that in time I will be 6 weeks ahead. And therefore o my be the 4 weeks areares I am in now with housing benefit. If someone e had very little income and no hope of getting back to work there isn’t anything anyone can do to help me budget.

Are they seriously suggesting that people have to re-apply every time there is a 5 week month?

As far as I know, no they're not. Claims are supposed to stay open for six months after you no longer get any Uc, I think. On job seekers you did have to reapply constantly if you took temp work or your hours decreased.

Even on job seekers most people didn't/don't get any payment for the first seven days of their claim. I don't think you have waiting days (on job seekers or uc) if you are transferring from another benefit?

I think the requirements for carers of small children are also less. However, I don't live in a full uc area. We could do with someone who knows exactly how it all works to do a q&a.

Can I make a suggestion to anyone reading- its an idea that I saw on a fb group and I have posted it on my wall and will be suggesting to both my childrens schools.

The run up to Christmas is going to be hard for many more people this year with the roll out of universal credit increasing- someone suggested schools doing a mufti day and instead of bringing in £1, each child could bring something to donate to local food bank.

Personally I would much rather support local people than a charity like Children in Need.

Apologies if anyone thinks this is inappropriate

GG people working with UC don’t all understand how it works

I’m in an area where if you are single and unemployed you should go onto UC

But even that varies...

It’s a nightmare with rent areas and evictions 😮

One glimmer of hope is that Tory donators and employers are STARTING to see it will negatively affect them too.

@Graphista how will it affect them? Sorry - I'm being a bit thick

Helena sadly not surprising. I briefly studied information systems and all the 'disaster' case studies we looked at were government projects. UC is going to be the latest in a long line of IT projects that come in massively over budget and are not fit for purpose.

Theoretically you don't have the 7 days wait if you are transferring from another benefit. In practice it seems to happen quite frequently and people need to do an MR to get it back-paid.

If you have a child under 1 you have no work related requirements
If you have a child aged 1+ you will have work focussed interviews
If you have a child aged 2+ you will have work preparation requirements (training, work placements etc.)
If you have a child age 3 or over you have 'all work related requirements' i.e. you need to be actively seeking and available for work.

The hours you need to spend seeking work/being available for work can be reduced from the usual 35/week if you have children under 13. Also if you're already working PT the hours you spend looking for work can be reduced in line with the amount you're already working/earning.

If you're in a couple only one of you will be able to have the above reduced work related requirements, the other will have all work related requirements unless earning at least 35 x min wage (unless one or both of you has limited capability for work or is a Carer)

The big change will be for people moving over from tax credits who are not used to having any conditionality.

Why am I not filled with confidence that the UC will automatically re-start without glitches?

And if you have an on-line account, it looks like the onus is on you to re-confirm your details every time. Despite nothing actually having changed

Have reported thread so that we can maybe get MNHQ to do a webchat/Q&A session as suggested above - great idea.

Also in the vain hope that they can help with some kind of campaign

*to bring it to MN attention

Excellent idea for a webchat Glitterglue and foof.