To ask about universal credit....?

[Nolagerformethanks]

First time I have ever claimed benefits, my partner works 20 hours per week (only work he can currently get after stopping being self employed...) I am on maternity leave. He earns around £200 per week, I am on SMP. We have one child. Benefits calculator showed we would probably be entitled to around £300 per month help, claim filled in online and ID appointment attended. At the ID appointment we were shown we could apply for an advance payment of £1100!!

Does anyone know if the amount you are offered as an advance is similar to your first payment? I have read loads of info online suggesting it is. Surely that cannot be right? It seems far to high and no way should we be eligible to claim that amount a month? Has anyone ever had their claim massively over calculated? I know UC is a bit of a minefield but any help/advice/personal experiences would be great.

Do you get housing benefit? If so, that would be a rent payment too.

The advance is normally what your entitlement would be if you had no income at all! Then they deduct the rates for your earned income from that. So yes that would be your entitlement but no you wont be getting that per month when you both earn.

It likely includes rent help as well. Plus you are in the 5 week period where they are making the decision about your claim, so the final amount will not be set yet. Remember that the advanced payment has to be paid back within 6 months, and taking a payment that high may really impact your payments.

I don't currently receive housing benefit whether they have allocated me some in he universal credit allowance, I don't know. I'm not going to take that as an advance, was very shocked to be offered it!! The £300 original estimate on the calculator is probably right I just keep seeing that the amount you are offered is how much your first payment will be and that is just not right! Will see what my statement says when it comes, I don't want to be owing 100's or even 1000's back to them down the line!

I was offered an advance of up to the monthly amount I would get. I don't have a rent element, but a friend who does gets around £1500 a month so your £1000ish doesn't sound unreasonable if they have said you are entitled to the rent/housing benefit element. You can spread the advance over up to 12 months (you can also make it a shorter repayment time) and it is repayed through a set amount being taken off each monthly payment in future. You should also get a 'statement' in the payments section of your account a few days before you are due to be paid that will tell you exactly how much you will be getting.

user1468348545 is right, the advance is based on what you would be entitled to if you had no earned income coming in at all. Your first payment won't be that high because they will adjust for income at the end of the month. Because it's all based on real time information from HMRC based on what you have actually earned during the assessment period, they can't adjust your maximum advance payment for income you don't have yet, IYSWIM

My advance was the full amount I was entitled to, obviously I don't get that each month as I have deductions for my wages

Thank you all, I understand it now! It's quite a minefield and I don't think you are given much information about it really, I was already panicking about being over paid before any payment has even come 🙈

DWP say the advance is up to the maximum of what they expect your first payment to be. They advise you don't take out the maximum advance unless you really need it, you can take a small amount to start with and then if you need more later take out a further advance so long as you haven't had your first payment yet.