AIBU - this universal credit cannot be right?

[Efilio]

I am a lone parent (live alone, no partner). I get no spousal maintenence and work 30 hours a week and earn about £1,500 a month. I have 2 children age 2 and 7. Childcare bill comes to between £500 and £700 per month. Children only go to childminder / nursery so that I can work. My universal credit is £305 - £358 per month (it varies). On the break down of costs it doesn't say anything about my childcare component even though I always upload the invoices from the childminders/ nursery and the bank statements showing I have paid. AIBU to think I have been underpaid? I read today that it pays 85% of your childcare! But it pays nothing like this amount. Thank you for reading!

Not unreasonable as it not been paid
Have you checked online to see if there are any tasks or journals to reply to ? Have you called and messaged your case manager ?

Your payment notification should show a breakdown of what thw components are. Eg entitlement for children rent and deductions for wages.
If nothing mentions childcare then you need to question this in your journal.

It has been like this for months; I didn't think to question it till now.

I have since I realised in the last week left about 3 messages asking someone to call me. I rang them yesterday and they said they would pass to my case manager, who would ring me by 6pm today. Then they also wrote this in my journal. But no phonecall happened hence me writing on here!

It sounds like they have missed off the childcare component. There is a Facebook group called Universal Credit Essentials and members there offer very good advice

@Soberfutures

Your payment notification should show a breakdown of what thw components are. Eg entitlement for children rent and deductions for wages. If nothing mentions childcare then you need to question this in your journal.

It does have in the breakdown my earnings for the month but there is no mention of childcare at all - it's definitely been uploaded though. I don't know how much i should expect to be getting so maybe I am being paid the right amount?

There is a FB group called universal credit survival and somebody there will look at your breakdowns and see if you are getting paid the right amount.

You should definitely be getting 85% of your childcare costs back and it should specify it on your statement. Is it with registered childcare company?

Are you claiming tax free childcare.

I was using it and when I applied for universal credit they said I was ineligible for the childcare component as I had used tax free child care.

I get childcare vouchers from work, I think I get this instead of the tax-free childcare. I get the maximum which is £243 per month. This covers most of the nursery costs (which is £55 but the 2 yr old only goes 1 day a week). Then I have to pay the childminder which comes to between £500 and £700 per month.

They said when I asked them that I couldn't claim on the childcare costs paid with childcare vouchers; but said I could claim on the rest when I asked them.

Sorry didn't see that question till after I had posted but yes the nursery and childminder are both OFSTED registered.

Put a message in your journal but make sure you select the “payment” option as the subject matter. This makes sure your journal message goes to your case manager, who is best placed to deal with this.

Don’t do it as a message to your work coach etc as it will go to your work coach. (Who will then have to contact the case manager themselves so it takes longer). The payment option is a shortcut, basically

thinkingaboutitall - thank you for that tip, it is really helpful!

If it’s childcare vouchers you can also claim help from universal credits. So if your childcare costs were £600 a month and you vouchers covered £300 a month you could claim up to £255 from universal credit.
As others have said join this group it’s a charity and gives excellent advice.

No problem- I hope you get it sorted out

Universal credit payments are v complicated to breakdown when things like this happen. I’m glad PP found groups online that can support you, it really is a minefield

Uc doesn't always pay 85%, they state they pay up to 85%. Your probably better off ringing them and hopefully it will get sorted quicker that way

Sorry just read your reply saying you have rang them already. Sometimes you have to repeatedly call them to get anywhere

Tbh calling them won’t necessarily help, because again it either gets directed to your Work Coach, your Case Manager or your Decision Maker. The person on the phone only refers your query on to one them when it’s something complicated like this, they can’t sort it out themselves. Bureaucracy

Oh sorry I said I don't get any spousal maintenence (I do get a very tiny amount of child maintenece but I spoke to them and they said it doesn't count).

I don't think I have a work coach... I don't need one as I am not looking for work currently.

Is the decision maker an actual person?? How many cases do they hold...?

As previously mentioned double check your to-do list and make sure there is nothing related to childcare xosts or your childcare provider outstanding.

There's a UC page on Facebook that you can post on with a screenshot of your statement and they'll tell you exactly what's right and wrong with it op

Hope this helps!

You may find you are better off not claiming the tax free childcare, and claiming through universal credit instead.

Have double-triple-checked the journal, there was a thing earlier in the month saying I needed to upload invoives as well as just screengrabs of the bank transfer, so I did that. Nothing since.

I have also noticed that the amount of money they have me down as earning completely different amounts to what I have been e.g my net salary is £1447, but "earnings reported by your employer" is down as £1639. So I only got £216 UC that month.
How would they get such an incorrect amount? Is my employer at fault here??

(for those wondering why I didn't notice at the time, I have been very unwell, mentally, and did not have the energy / spoons to look into this till now.)