Unable to pay full rent

[bratzdoll]

I'm a single parent currently on maternity leave so I receive UC monthly to help pay my rent and further bills. I'm private renting but I got the flat through the homelessness scheme (when you're homeless and in temporary accommodation but willing to take a private flat instead of waiting years in temporary accommodation until a council flat is available)

The benefit of private renting through the homelessness scheme is that the council are in contact with Landlords that are happy to rent to someone on UC and are usually happy to negotiate the monthly rent price.

I moved into the flat a few months ago and always pay my rent to the Landlord's agent one day before it's due just so the receive it without any problems or anything.

This month my UC was around £1100 less than it should have been because my employer incorrectly reported that I had earned around £2500 last month
I'm still only receiving SMP so I have no clue how they made such a drastic mistake but this means DD and I are living on near to nothing this month.

I sent an email to the Landlord's agent a few days before the rent was due to let them know the situation. I included screenshots of my UC Payment page so they could see the breakdown of what I normally get and see what was deducted. I did say I was able to contribute a small amount to the rent (less than £200 as I was given less than £400 from UC to live on for the month)
I also let them know that I spoke to my work coach about what happened as she's raised this with the investigation team so hopefully she'll hear back from them soon.

I spoke to the agent on the phone the day before the rent was due (I always speak to the manager btw) and she was very understanding and just said to update her with what happens. The next morning I get an email from her saying the Landlord was not happy at all (understandingly) and that I need to do whatever it takes to be able to pay the rent in full including taking out an overdraft!

I've never not paid my rent since I've lived here and it's not as if I got the dates mixed up or I spent the money on something else. The rent amount wasn't given to me for no fault of my own. I was a bit shocked at the Landlord's response as I'd literally given him more than half of what I received just to be able to contribute something. When in reality I could have kept it and spent that on myself and my daughter as we desperately need it!

There's often a discussion on Twitter about some Landlords and how they refuse to be understanding even in unavoidable situations. I understand I'm renting and effectively helping to pay off his mortgage, but this wasn't my fault at all.

(just in case anyone wants to bash me for being on benefits, I've been working full time since I was 17. It's more or less impossible to be a single parent living on SMP)

@Skyll

5 times in how long though? Rent is usually due 1st of month - 5 times in 3 weeks isn’t much. If, however, your rent was due on Monday past (ie 22nd) then 5 times is reasonable.

@Skyll no you're wrong. Rent is due the date you signed the tenancy agreement and runs til the day before the following month. Example our rent is on the 19th of the month because that's when we signed the agreement and the property became 'ours'

[quote Lineofconcepcion]@julieca enough so they do not claim any benefits from the state, are sensible enough to ensure they have a contingency and don't expect the rest of the tax paying public to subsidise their lifestyle choices.[/quote]
So over £50,000 then. Anyone earning under that gets child benefit.

No. of households % of households
London 1,698,036 46
UK 9,597,916 34

So only just half of Londoners are allowed to maybe have a child if they also have savings and only one-third of households outside of London. The rest just have to remain childless then. And presumably, abort if you get accidentally pregnant as well?

I didn’t say what day the op’s rent was due. I was explaining that it depended on when her rent was due from whether messaging 5 times was reasonable or not.

It'll be 'fine' @bratzdoll . x Of course there was a chance the landlord was going to push to get you to pay the thing, but if this (god willing) is a one-off, they won't throw you out or anything like that.

I hope you get your money back soon. x

Julieca a budget loan is interest free from the DWP, they take a small amount back each week from your benefits.

OP In the absence of relevant contact details to hand, I advise you write an email to your manager but addressed to the HR and payroll managers detailing the situation requesting an urgent salary advance to rectify this situation and ask your manager to forward it on to the payroll manager and HR manager. Explain the situation is causing you financial hardship and potentially putting your tenancy at risk.

You can apply for DHP more than once. My friend got it for 3 months whilst waiting for her new job to start.

Ignore the negative people on here. Some people don’t understand the panic when UC goes wrong. Wages/SMP only stretches so far.

@Newnameneededxx

“This month my UC was around £1100 ”

Just trying to get my head round this and thinking I must have done something wrong somewhere along the line when my monthly take home pay is £1400

If you lived alone you could probably claim. How do you expect those on nothing to survive?

@GreyGoose1980

OP In the absence of relevant contact details to hand, I advise you write an email to your manager but addressed to the HR and payroll managers detailing the situation requesting an urgent salary advance to rectify this situation and ask your manager to forward it on to the payroll manager and HR manager. Explain the situation is causing you financial hardship and potentially putting your tenancy at risk.

Thanks for this. I originally sent an email to my line manager explaining what had happened and he forwarded that to HRPayroll along with his own email stressing how serious this is. They didn't even bother replying to him let alone me!

I agree that I should request an urgent salary advance to rectify this situation however my Employer is SO stingy! They honestly don't care how bad they fuck up it's so ridiculous.
I will continue chasing after them and carry on highlighting how much this has affected my livelihood and could possibly affect my tenancy

All landlords should have a buffer there is all sorts of reasons why rent maybe late

And they should have insurance (which usually kicks in around 6 weeks of non payment in the meantime you negotiate with your insurance company) beyond me why landlords don’t insure

If you rent to those on a low income or those on benefits you know this can happen

@bratzdoll
Have you emailed HR as well as payroll? Some payroll is within finance not a people function. HR may be able to influence them. Even if your company aren’t supportive in general HR won’t want a formal grievance and may intervene if only for those reasons. Hope you get it sorted.

Why? It is true- that is exactly what she is doing [paying off the Landlord’s Mortgage]

That is absolutely not necessarily the case @LuluBlakey1.

BTL mortgages are overwhelmingly interest only. No capital is repaid.

For all those saying Landlords should have a buffer and shouldn’t rely on rent to pay mortgages, you’re right

But the Landlord is still entitled to ask for payment in full. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

OP a few posters have asked but I can't see you've replied, did you just get the £400 UC or did you get your maternity pay as well?

Hopefully, you're getting child maintenance from your baby's father.

Surely it should start with your employer to notify the DWP that they sent the wrong amount that you received, then the rest should fall into place.

@Nat6999

Julieca a budget loan is interest free from the DWP, they take a small amount back each week from your benefits.

Okay good no interest, but it can still cause issues for months with people left with not really enough money to live on. I have always avoided debt as I see so many people on a low-income sink under debt.

[quote GreyGoose1980]@bratzdoll
Have you emailed HR as well as payroll? Some payroll is within finance not a people function. HR may be able to influence them. Even if your company aren’t supportive in general HR won’t want a formal grievance and may intervene if only for those reasons. Hope you get it sorted.[/quote]
I actually haven't contacted HR on their own, only HR Payroll as that's the only details my manager gave me.
HR's details are always so hard to find (no clue why they're so secretive) but I'll try my best to find them on Monday and will get into contact. Thanks again

OP- I think you have been really proactive and you are doing what you can. I cannot begin to imagine how stressful this is whilst on mat leave, particularly as you are having to spend hours trying to sort out some one else's mistake.

For those of you who have never had to deal with universal credit, I work with vulnerable families and any mistake or change in circumstances can mean payments being suspended for weeks. I am not sure how you/your partner would cope with suddenly not being paid and then being told it will take several weeks to sort out. Those who have a safety net are bloody lucky, but increasingly people are living hand to mouth and the capacity to save is minimal. Not every one has a family who can help out and as OP demonstrates, there is very diminished social housing so most housing benefit goes to private landlords. I have little sympathy to those who have invested in property specifically to target those on benefits. Yes there is a risk but often the conditions of the property is shocking and it is not that long ago that they were able to charge more than to the private rental market because current caps on rent were not in place. To make it worse, lots of the houses on offer were council bought through rent to buy at some point.

Finally, for all you lucky people questioning how OP found herself in her position, your lack of imagination is astounding. My DH dropped down dead unexpectedly and beleive me all those insurance plans and pension plans do everything they can not to pay out. Every other thread on here tells the OP to leave the bastard, because it is that simple. Whilst there maybe support (far less than people think) to leave abusive partners, there is nothing to ensure they and their children are financially stable in the longer term whilst dealing with the emotional fall out, isolation and having to be a single parent in these circumstances.

@bratzdoll What amount of earnings were you expecting to be taken into account by UC, and how often are you paid by the employer? Is it possible you had more payments within the assessment period than you realise (for example, three sets of fortnightly payments instead of the usual two, or two sets of 4-weekly payments).

This month my UC was around £1100 less

Wow how much do you usually get in UC? How much do you earn from your job (I assume you’re working as you mentioned employer)? If you usually get £2000 a month then I’ll cry. I earn that… before tax, NI, student loans, rent, bills etc come out. I think I need to stop working

@mummyh2016

OP a few posters have asked but I can't see you've replied, did you just get the £400 UC or did you get your maternity pay as well?

The reason I haven't replied is because that's a whole other issue in itself. Long story short my work has managed to mess up my SMP (not even sure how as this money comes from the government) so the amount I was paid earlier this month was nearly £200 LESS than the usual amount.

It's actually funny because the whole time I've been on maternity leave, I've only received the correct SMP for two months and that's it. Every month there's been some issue which my manager has to rectify, I get the backpay the next month then it gets taxed anyway. That then has an affect on the UC amount I get that month. It's all a mess.

So to answer your question I got paid earlier this month, all spent on bills/food shopping but it wasn't a problem as I expected the usual amount from UC which always covers the rent and a few more bills.
I waffled a bit there but hopefully that answers your question

@Pixxie7

Surely it should start with your employer to notify the DWP that they sent the wrong amount that you received, then the rest should fall into place.

You'd think so but I haven't even received a response from them! I will keep at them because as soon as they fix this issue everything else should go smoothly

[quote Catkin8]@bratzdoll What amount of earnings were you expecting to be taken into account by UC, and how often are you paid by the employer? Is it possible you had more payments within the assessment period than you realise (for example, three sets of fortnightly payments instead of the usual two, or two sets of 4-weekly payments).[/quote]
I'm paid 4 weekly so it definitely fucked me up this month! My work coach pointed out that I had been paid twice during the assessment period but even she could see that it wasn't ANYWHERE near £2500. So I would have had some deductions but I still would have been able to pay my rent with no issues!

The 4 week thing is an absolute bollocks of a mess in the system.