No universal credit as I got paid early over Christmas

[BlueFlamingo9]

I’m shocked to discover this.

I’m a part time and disabled worker recently split from my Dh.

I logged in and checked my UC account as Christmas has been tight this year and it says I’m entitled to £0 this is because my employer paid me a week early. Does this mean I lose a month entitlement. For context I get £400 a month and this excludes an entitlement for my disabled son,

This is my first year on UC and if I’m honest it’s going to be a long January.

AIBU to be shocked and worried

You should be able to dispute it - they can do a manual adjustment when this happens so the payments can be attributed over 2 months rather than 1.

Employers were told to use the usual pay date for dec pay reporting even if paid early due to it messing up universal credit, looks like your employer hasn’t. You should eventually get it but it’s a pain. Is there anyone else in same boat at your work? Would your employer be willing to give an advance?

Do a dispute now.

Don't be abusive. Wish them Merry Xmas. It'll be a massive change for them to read that.

Using a different payment date often messes up UC, you shouldn't lose out overall but it's an unnecessary pain to sort out.

If your monthly paid it can be corrected

Thanks for the advice, how do I do a dispute?

@Wfhquery

Employers were told to use the usual pay date for dec pay reporting even if paid early due to it messing up universal credit, looks like your employer hasn’t. You should eventually get it but it’s a pain. Is there anyone else in same boat at your work? Would your employer be willing to give an advance?

^ This - whoever does your employer's payroll has made an error - they were given instruction by the government about how to do this to avoid the problem but have not done as instructed.

Send a message in your journal

Will you then get way more than £400 next month due to your main income being zero as there will be no pay day for more than a month? I don't know how these things are calculated but it might be worth checking what the next month's UC would be.

Sorry this has happened OP it's so frustrating. If its a one off they may be able to do a manual adjustment.

For me it's an ongoing nightmare. I have a job I love that pays last Friday of the month. Which can fall anywhere from the 24th to 31st. My UC period runs from the 27th to the 26th. Every month my earnings are the same but according to UC /Dwp it can be 0, 1 month or 2 months. Because everything is automatic. It affects when I get called in to the job centre and council tax benefit and last year whether I was entitled to free Perscriptions. It's a nightmare. Oh and once you are on UC you can't change the starting date.

For anyone who does payroll, how easy is it to change 1 employees payment date? I'm wondering if they could pay me on the last Friday but report it as the 27th each month?

Anyway that's my moan. Don't want to hijack. If you can't get a manual change it will be 'corrected' next month.

For anyone applying for UC. The monthly period they use is the day you make your claim, ie I claimed on the 27th. So please bear that in mind.

@Kpositive1

Sorry this has happened OP it's so frustrating. If its a one off they may be able to do a manual adjustment.

For me it's an ongoing nightmare. I have a job I love that pays last Friday of the month. Which can fall anywhere from the 24th to 31st. My UC period runs from the 27th to the 26th. Every month my earnings are the same but according to UC /Dwp it can be 0, 1 month or 2 months. Because everything is automatic. It affects when I get called in to the job centre and council tax benefit and last year whether I was entitled to free Perscriptions. It's a nightmare. Oh and once you are on UC you can't change the starting date.

For anyone who does payroll, how easy is it to change 1 employees payment date? I'm wondering if they could pay me on the last Friday but report it as the 27th each month?

Anyway that's my moan. Don't want to hijack. If you can't get a manual change it will be 'corrected' next month.

For anyone applying for UC. The monthly period they use is the day you make your claim, ie I claimed on the 27th. So please bear that in mind.

I don't "do" payroll, but I do work on Pay systems. In most systems you can't have a different payday for each employee - generally the process depends on everyone receiving a regular payment at a roughly similar interval - the submissions to HMRC, Bank Payments etc are generally done once per period. It depends on the system how easy it is to make an exception, but it's extra work for payroll that would probably not be sanctioned by people higher up.

The real issue is the twats who designed UC without taking any account at all of how 99% of people actually get paid, and now refuse to amend their shit systems to cope with it.

It's awful OP. They knew about these problems before rolling UC out, and did nothing. If they take ages you could get in touch with citizens advice to see if you can get food bank vouchers to help out this month, as you may need what money you do have for essential bills.

Your employer should have processed your pay on the usual date and just made the payment early, most payroll systems will throw up a warning message to do this in December too, so whoever does the payroll at your work is a bit daft, this has been a known issue since UC started.

Obviously the real culprit is UC, but this was avoidable either way.