I hate UC

[MsHopey]

Woke up last month to an email saying DH hadn't worked any hours last month and they needed to re evaluate his commitments blah blah blah but said we was getting more money than we were entitled to.
Phoned them first thing, they'd somehow fucked up his payee reference which is why is was coming up he'd earned nothing. Even though it had worked for 3 months.
DH works full time in a minimum wage job but I'm at home with our DS.
They were glad I didn't want the extra money and that I'd told them (well obviously because I'm not entitled to it).
This morning another email asking to look at the commitments again, so stressed and thought "i know where this is going".
Wrong.
They said he earned over £2000 last month (I bloody wish) and we're entitled to nothing.
Somehow i don't think they're going to be as nice on the phone as when I wanted them go take some money back, because this time I'm asking for money.
If DH earned £2000 after taxes I'd be over the bloody moon and wouldn't need or want UC.
I have thought it was a good system now, but it's been being a bag of shit. And I can see if someone was completely living off it (at least I know we're getting DH wages if UC fails) how stressful and crap it is.
I am grateful we get anything, and I know people benefit bash but I'm pretty sure it would only have been WTC were getting on the old system. But it seems shit that I have to phone them every month to sort out problems, and I don't even know where these problems are coming from.
How can they have his payee number and think he got paid nothing when he didn't? And how can they think he got paid £2000 when he didn't? Where do they pull these numbers from?
I just wish they'd sort it out.
We haven't got any work related commitments other than DH goes to his job every day, which is does. So it's crap to have to keep fighting for £300 a month but without it we can't afford food.
What's gone wrong and is it going to be like this forever?
We got no money last month because I got a bit of holiday pay from my old job that I'd quit ages before. And we're getting none next month because DH gets paid 4 weekly and that falls in next month (definitely not this month).
So as a family of 3 we had £1000 for all bills next month and £1000 for bills next month. We really needed that money this month to keep us afloat and they're saying we can't have it.
Just ranting and peeved. Sorry.

It’s a joke isn’t it? No advice but wanted to show you YANBU.
for everyone working hard in minimum wage jobs who are getting pissed about by this cluster fuck.

It was meant to say *£1000 for bills last month and then next month.
But at this rate for this month too.

When I first read "are you joking?" I was waiting for an abusive comment. AIBU is normally pretty hard faced. But thank you @SandysMam I know at least we're getting some money but unfortunately DHs wages are a real struggle for us alone. Hopefully I can get it sorted but it's just extra stress every month, and it does seem crap for DH stressing about money when he works 6 days a week and does overtime when it's available and it's just he gets super shit pay.

It’s awful, from my recent experience with them you need to kick up a fuss over the phone and threaten to get your mp involved etc, there’s no use in being nice (which makes me feel awful however needs must).

I’ve recently been made a single parent again so have had to claim for UC as now in a minimum wage pt job, they NEVER verify my DDs childcare payments leaving me between £180-£300 short a month, the only way I can get them to verify the payments is if I kick up a fuss on the phone.

The system is fucking broken and it’s pure shit.

It is disgusting that you and probably many others are put under additional stress each month to get what the law says you are entitled to.

Just worked it out.
Last month when they said he'd been paid nothing, I corrected them and they added DHs wages to our claim.
But I think the payee system or husbands work place was behind. Because this months £2000 is basically last months wages and this months wages combined perfectly to create the £2000 number.
So they counted last months wages twice. Once when I reported it last month, and again when it actually came through (late) this month.
Hopefully they can see what has gone wrong and fix it.

Is he paid four weekly? We have that issue one month a year we get no money as they class it as two payments in one assessment period. It’s horrible. I’m doing all I can to stock up on food for that month now

Yes he's paid 4 weekly, unfortunately. But that falls next month.
He got paid on the 3rd of August and the 31st of August, but our claiming period is the 27th to the 26th (stupid, I know) so they would have been separated by the 26th and been in different payment periods.

He's gets paid again tomorrow (28th) and again on the 26th October. So then we'll get no money in November. Which we aren't prepared for if we don't get any money this month. Iyswim?
Even explaining it on here makes it sound ridiculous. Doing it on the phone later is going to be more complicated.

Eeek, this is horrible for you. It hits my area next month - I'm not affected but a lot of families at DS2's school (where I am a parent governor) will be and I'm so worried for everyone. School is looking at what can be done to help and support parents through it - if the kids can't eat etc they can't learn so it's a big concern.

If the earnings feed has come through incorrectly from the HMRC then it would mean your partner’s employer didn’t report them right. It may be worth your partner asking his employer to re-report the earnings to the HMRC and then it should all correct itself. If his employer refuses- ask for an appointment to raise an rti dispute.

If your on Facebook, look up universal credit essentials. It's a closed group but the admin are fantastic with helping people out who are having issues with the system.

Good luck!

Good luck, I'm sorry it's so stressful. I think you've explained it perfectly clearly, so hopefully they will sort it out for you. Annoying that you have to spend hours of your time on admin for it. Last year before my DS started school, they cancelled my 30 hours free childcare every three months because they said they believed DH was earning too much. He wasn't, his salary didn't change in that whole time. That was frustrating enough, and we didn't rely on it to feed us. Hope you get some sensible answers and some money soon!

I read somewhere that they make it intentionally difficult so that you decide not to bother getting it.
But if you need it that's not really an option.
I know so many people have it worse than me and i know most the bills and rent will be paid.
But it's getting cold and the storage heaters cost a fortune to run and food isn't cheap, we're already on a tight budget so not sure where to cut corners if they don't pay us. Especially as some of the money needs saving for next month because of the 4 weekly pay fiasco.
I'll be on the phone to them at 8am and hopefully get it sorted. At least I know what's wrong so I can explain it.

Phoned them.
After explaining what's happened they can see the error.
They said I did the right thing last month letting them know but it has affected this months pay.
I need to be at the job centre for 10am with DHs wage slip to prove how much he earned (even though it's completely logical and easy go see what's happened without the wage slip).
They said it then needs to go through their chain of command from work coach to someone else to someone else who will decide what to do.
I asked if their was a possibility we wouldn't get any money this month and she said it was the higher ups decision 😫
Great start to the day.

I couldn't quite follow what happened originally. But something I learned after another thread about the problems of being paid four-weekly is that on average over a year, if anything it works in your favour to be paid irregularly, i.e. not the same every month. You gain more from UC in the months you are paid less than average than you lose in the months when you are paid more. (This theory does depend on you being paid enough in some months to wipe out all UC for that month.)

I suppose I'm saying there could be a silver lining somewhere once things settle down.

@Firesuit
I hadn't really thought about it that way. You are right as obviously an extra 3 days on a wage slip would take away some money they would give you.

But this isn't because of a 4 weekly fuck up.
It's counting the same pay day in last month and then again this month along with his actual payday.
I had to tell them his pay last month because his payee said he'd earned nothing. And they corrected it easy peasy.
But it seems the payment was just delayed on the system because it's turned up in this months assessment period along with his actual pay for this month. Therefore them thinking he was paid twice this month, but he wasn't.
So when he got paid on 3rd of August they counted in last months pay assessment and then again the exact same 3rd of August payday has cropped up again. It's definitely the same one counted twice.

I don't know whether they will do this, but if my theory is right, if they went back and altered all records to record actual payments when they arrived in you bank account, resulting in two payments within one month, they you'd get no UC for that month but be entitled to more for the other month when there was no pay. That might sound like gaming the system, but I think it is how UC is supposed to work.

(But I could be talking rubbish, my only knowledge is from what I read on here.)

We were entitled to £700 last month if he didn't earn anything. But because I'd received holiday pay and he's got £1000 we got paid £33. So we would have been better off keeping the £700! We normally only get £300. But I told them because the 3rd August was definitely in the 27th July to 26th August payment bracket.
But then this month the 26th August to 27th September bracket they've counted the 3rd of August and 31st August payment.
If happily have the £700 instead of the £300 if it's what I'm entitled to.
But I can't cope with having nothing.
We'll see how they work it out.

Could your DH speak to his work and explain to their payroll / HR what the 4 weekly system does to people like him now? They probably have no idea. They may not be able to do anything, but if they ever review their payroll methods, they may want to look to change to a monthly system to help people out in the long term.

Actually ignore me, just twigged that his job may well be a weekly wage not a monthly wage. I'm an idiot. Sorry.

Has your DP spoken to his employer? It may be they misreported it

He hasn't spoken to his employer. But it's a cleaning company that is a subcontractor so he only sees a few people on site.
All offices and HR and payroll are somewhere else in the country who barely answer the phone and make out every problem you have is your problem alone and have been doing everything to cut costs and save money while leaving the teams without enough workers and without equipment to do their job.
I doubt they're willing to take any of this on board from previous experiences.
They don't know their head from their arse and that's it they're even willing to listen in the first place.

this is exactly why UC needs to be stopped,im guessing when its rolled out more it is not going to cope,then what

hope you get it sorted op

I'm amazed you can phone them - I work with DWP a lot and their message says that you can't phone them about UC - how did you manage that and not have to use your Journal?

They don't actually check our journal.
They're only if you have a work coach but because I stay at home with a 1yo and DH works full time we're not actively seeking work so was told no one ever looks at our journal. We're supposed to just be left to get on with it except with how many issues we've encountered we're on the phone every month.
I just called 08003285644
My journal is useless.

They shouldn’t leave your journal without being checked- there should be a team leader or work coach who is assigned all the customers who aren’t in the intensive work regime. I’m so sorry you’ve had a bad experience