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.

Hi everyone and thanks for getting in touch about the possibility of us running a Q&A session on this. Just to let you know that we're passing your suggestions onwards and upwards, and we will get back to you soon .

"however I have since read that after November 2018 universal credits won't pay for more than two children on any claim existing children or not unless you already have a claim in place on universal credit which of course you can't do because they won't let you."

That is for new tax credit claims only. Until November 2018 you can claim for more than 2 dc as long as they are born before 1/4/17 after that date you can't .

Yes Marvel, I was thinking about the period between Nov 2018 and whenever they start to migrate people. That's good to know there'll be a 6 month grace period though for people stopping and starting claims themselves.

Thank you CarolineMumsnet

Are you able to change to monthly payments? We're on weekly, I don't know what the limit is but I'm panicking now

Quick question. What counts as change of circumstances? I ask because every year, I get a pay raise. It's never over a pound and I'd rather not have it if it'll force me to claim universal credit.

Tali I asked that earlier but was reassuringly told a small pay rise doesn't count as a change in circs so you'll be ok

I don’t know when uc comes here but I dread it. I qualify in August 2019 but till then I’m a student nurse so yes I am actually doing 37,5 hours a week whether that’s placement or uni but for tax credit purposes I’m unemployed. My husband runs a business and manages around 30 a week round my shifts and childcare, this is an average per week, sometimes more sometime less. Sometimes earnings are good, sometimes poor, he will sometimes visit two or three jobs and quote and be there a few hours and no work will come of it, he has still spent petrol to get there etc so these weeks can be hard (xmas really dries out) he can’t work full time employed as there is literally no flexibility with it and we would be crippled by childcare! When I qualify and have a job with set hours obviously child care will be less of an issue, at the moment everything is so last minute, I often don’t find out my placement areas till a fortnight before I go then find out it’s a ward with a mixture of night shifts and long days, two weeks notice is barely anything to find a child minder to accommodate these hours and nurseries have their set hours. How will this system work for people like us? I can’t look for work as I DO work, dh does the best he can around my very chaotic life as a student nurse, we both work bloody hard. The other day I did a 7am to 8pm shift and came home in tears (a whole other story about the state of the nhs hospital I’m currently at) no I don’t earn much for it but I work bloody hard. This country is a joke!

Thanks, Sassy. I'm glad my rent wont change til Feb 2019.

Schools are also going to have to get on board with the fact that parents on UC arent going to be able to afford to buy school uniform as and when due to gaps in claims. And not pressure parents or send kids to isolation.

Pencils originally no new claims were you gbto be possible after April 2017. The November 2018 date is actually a bit of a reprieve.

*going to

HelenaDove, school meals too - minefield just for that alone.

Barbaric.
We should be out on the streets over this.

This is being done on purpose throughout the benefits system as a way to try and "motivate people" into not being poor.

kittysjones.wordpress.com/2017/10/22/the-connection-between-universal-credit-ordeals-and-experiments-that-electrocute-laboratory-rats/

YY Foof

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/14/universal-credit-flaw-hits-free-school-meals?CMP=share_btn_fb

I’m confused. You can have a job and still claim benefits? I’m not being purposely obtuse. Is it like a top up for low income?

David Finch, senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Implementing such an ambitious reform was always going to be hard, and there are bound to be teething problems. But inevitable implementation challenges are different to straightforward design flaws.

The free school meal design issue is one of many to address before millions of people are moved to the new system.
David Finch, Resolution Foundation
“One big question that needs answering is the extent to which families on universal credit will receive free school meals. Depending on what the government decides, it could either mean a massive expansion of free meals, costing around £600m a year by the time [the new system] is fully rolled out, or a scaling back of the programme, with some working families losing their entitlement as a result."

Yes peppersteak Because the average income is very low and the average rent very high. Most people on full time low wages with children cant pay their rent without top ups.

Just had a thought.............teaching assistants might have to be taking time off to go and sort out UC.

I await the "AIBU to think DDs TA shouldnt keep taking time off to sort paperwork"

UChris being discussed on Moneybox right now (radio 4).

UC not UChris

Will there be new rules for employers? Now it’s up to employees to update tax credit and the like bit UC is supposed to be live every week and adjust. Are they expecting millions of people to log on and input this data onto a government site? Or once you get your pay slip do you have to do that yourself?

We claim universal credit and I get nervous every month when the pay date approaches
Me too.

Luckily for me I get paid monthly, but UC is still a worry every month.

I actually didn't bother with over-time this year as I know its seasonal so its not like I can get the same pay and hours over winter. Surely that's the opposite of what the government wanted.