To the think this Universal Credit rule is so so wrong!

[ilovewelshrarebit123]

I'm a single parent, one DD and I work 30 hours a week.

I didn't get my UC payment this month which was a complete shock. I get paid my salary on the 15th of every month, and as the 15th of August was over the weekend I got paid on the 14th.

After investigation which has taken over a week, UC say I've been paid twice in the assessment period (15th to 14th) so I get nothing. I was paid on the 15/8 and 14/9 but it isn't two payments in one month is it. It was just a day early because of the weekend.

I'm £600 down and i just can't get my head around this policy. They've said there is nothing that can be done and I won't be getting this payment. It will also happen in January due to Decembers pay date.

They suggested I cancel my UC claim, start another one so the assessment period is different. But then I have to start the claim again and wait the 6 week assessment period with no payments.

Please don't tell me not to 'rely' on UC, I have no choice and I work hard.

So that's it, I'm stuffed this month through no fault of my own and UC is a crock of shit! 😡

Does anyone know what the different number of hours they expect you to work for the children's ages?

Thanks baby so if I make sure I don’t claim near pay day I’ll be ok?

Yep, I posted about this not long ago.
Also means you miss out on the allowable amount in that month too.

Just wow how inept

What is this allowable amount/ work allowance that people are mentioning here?

When youngest child is aged 3 it is 16 hours, then 25 when youngest is 5-12, then 35 hours ( I think)once youngest is over 12years. This is for lone parents. If you are part of a couple with kids then the hours you are expected to work are the same but if for example your spouse works full time and earns enough you might be put on 'light touch' and they wouldn't make you do much work search. I'm not sure what they consider to be enough income though. I think a lot of it depends on your work coach and how strict they are. Obviously if you are a carer for a disabled child or spouse there are no work commitments.

I do a bit less than 25 but I earn a bit over minimum wage. Maybe it'll be ok I cos I earn over minimum wage...
Never realized it'd be so worrying

People aren't lucky to get UC

I get tax credits but I work 30 hrs a week term time only (salaried so paid over 12 months). I wouldn't earn more working 37 hours a week 52 weeks of the year on NMW. I woke my hours because I have a disabled child who needs me to care for them.

The issue is the economy and needing to rely on the state. I'd much rather wages reflected the cost of living realistically.

Purple . The work allowance is money that is disregarded before your wages start to reduce your total UC amount. It can be either nothing, £198 ( lower work allowance) or £409 ( higher work allowance). You would only get the higher work allowance if you don't claim any housing element ( so if you have a mortgage or live with parents for example or own your own home outright), have children and / or have Limited capability for work and work related activity . The lower work allowance you would get if you have kids and / or LCW or LCWRA and claim the rent/ housing element of UC. if you are just a couple both healthy and no kids you get no work allowance at all so every pound you earn will reduce your UC amount by 63p in the pound. Sorry if I have totally confused you all . I am not the best at explaining things. It seems odd that if you own your own home outright and therefore have no housing costs that if you have kids you can still have the first £409 of your wages disregarded before your wages reduce your UC, as surely they are the group of people least likely to need the help . Some things just don't make sense.

Baby thanks for advice on when to claim. What happens when it's rolled out though? If people are automatically switched do they still have to wait the 6 weeks and then get given their assessment date?

People wont be automatically switched , they will still need to make the claim. so might have some control over when their claim starts. I don't think details of the managed migration have been released yet , no-one really knows which areas will be migrated first. If you have a change of circumstances before you are migrated over then you probably don't have much control over assessment dates as you will need to get the claim in place asap. When they start to migrate people over they say that the amount you are currently on will be protected so you wont be worse off.

one thing I missed is the next month they will be deemed as not having earnt anything, so they will get full UC but will miss out on the work allowance that the disabled and those with children get if working. As said, though over the whole year it should balance out. However, happy for someone to correct me if I have understood it wrong!

That's a good point. I wonder what the criteria for the work allowance are? After all, the claimant is working, and earning, just not getting any money in that assessment period. For it to be correct to withhold the work allowance, the regs would have to specify that wages must be paid in each assessment period.

Helena, thank you for your good wishes. They did the trick, I got the job.

Well done You will be brilliant at it

This is really worrying me, I've looked at the advice and calculators online but none seem to cater for my specific situation - can anyone point me in the direction of help please?
I get paid weekly, so the extra pay day in 2 months of the year will affect me, but further to this I work on an 8 day rota, not 7 (only way it works fairly in my position) so basically it works out that for 4 weeks I get paid for 4 nights a week and then for 4 weeks I get paid for 3 nights a week, and this continues like that. Currently on tax credits and have averaged my hours out over the year, but it was hard enough getting tax credits to understand how it works. I can see me having my claim stopped not just in 5 week months but every other month when I earn more, which is fine except for the 5 week wait while I reclaim each second month. I'm so confused about it all now.

Your Uc payment will just be based on whatever earnings are reported during your monthly assessment period. So if one month your earnings are higher you will get less UC and if you earn less you will get more UC.

So do they automatically get your payslips through from your work? How do they know?

And how are you so knowledgeable babyroobs lol

Yes HMRC report your earnings to UC unless you are self employed then you report them yourself ! I do it for a job and am on a steep learning curve as we haven't had much training and I'm having lots of poor clients with terrible Uc problems !!

Maybe that would be better for me? Cos I earn commission on top of my salary so it differs each month sometimes

I personally think it can be better for people on variable earnings. With tax credits it was often difficult to estimate what you would earn over the year and people ended up with overpayments . With Uc it is more based on 'real time' earnings. and can top up a poorly paid month. However many people don't seem to like not knowing what they are getting each month, I think because that's the way tax credits have worked for so long and it does make it harder to budget. It is fairly easy to work out what you will get though according to your earnings, I'm sure after a bit of practice people can do the calculation if they know what they've earned in their last assessment period.

Glad I've seen this thread anyway. I know a lot more about it now

Im a lone parent of two on the old system. Im dreading being moved over. In july i should finish my open uni degree and am currently trying to decide what to do next without screwing myself over with a forced change onto universal credit. Part of me thinks I ought to hold on a year (i want to dona masters in social work and be a social.worker) to get lots of volunteering done etc to improve my chances of a decent career free of universal credit etc or I jump straight into masters and something goes wrong leaving me stuck long term. My daughter is on mrc dla too

My point is (sorry) that universal credit seems to make it so hard to actually improbe your situation rather than just get by. Its scary as a lone parent :(

Thank you @Babyroobs
My area is due to change over in November, but if I have understood correctly as I'm already on tax credits and there shouldn't be a change, I won't be changed to uc until next year.
In some ways it may make things easier for me, I over estimate my earnings to account for covering others holidays or sickness which inevitably happen over the year, so I don't end up getting too much, the way uc will seem to work means I won't have to do that, and will it will be in accordance with what I earn that month.
I'm trying to build a cushion to see me through a transition period, and already put aside some money on four night weeks to see me through 3 night weeks. So I will continue with that. What worries me is the waiting time, because obviously everything will still need to be paid regardless.
The other concern is that for my circumstances it says I need to work up to 35 hours a week. On an average over the year I work 30 hours a week, but with the way my rota falls, for 4 weeks I work 34 hours a week and for 4 weeks I work 25.5 hours a week. In the 25.5 hours a week am I going to be asked why and need to try and find extra work for those weeks? Because that's going to be a nightmare, I work 4 consecutive nights all the time and have 4 off, but obviously the days change each week. Do they average it out or am I likely to have issues with this? There's no scope to increase my hours where I am every week, and I rely on family for childcare, 4 nights a week is ok, but 5 regularly is taking the piss a bit, and I don't think my mum will do it regularly.

Bus - It is a 5 week wait for payment but you can apply for an advance to tide you over but I think how much you can get is possibly affected by whether you have any earnings coming in. I think you will be fine with the variable weeks, its not really based on average hours and if you earn more than minimum wage for your hours you should be fine. You wont switch over unless you have a change in circumstances. the managed migration is meant to start in July 2019 until 2023 ( I think) so realistically people may not be forced to switch for years yet. I understand people are worried but if you wait to be migrated you shouldn't lose money, and it may not be for years that you get migrated anyway. So unless you lose your job, move to a full service area and need to claim help with rent from a different local authority, or you have a child turning 5 and don't already work, or you split with a partner or have a partner move in, then it's unlikely anything will change.