Universal credit not updating childcare costs

[MAREMCKENNA]

Does anyone else have this issue? I always add my childcare costs to UC on the day I pay them so always reported on time. They update the costs which fall in the assessment period, but then I'm left with an underpayment. Totally fine, but I'm now due underpayments for March, April and May. I keep leaving journal messages and have called a number of times to get someone to update it but just get a journal message saying it is done manually and to wait. It's about £800 I'm owed. Does anyone have this problem? Is there a way to solve this?

YES.

They fucked us over with £600 because they said I uploaded my childcare costs late or not at all (they couldn't make up their minds) this is not true.
I uploaded them twice, both before the end time frame.

They don't answer messages the phone calls were painful.
I must have called them 20 times about it.

They also screwed us out of the cost of living payment.

So all in all, about £1000.

They are fucking useless.

now I take a screen shot of every time I upload childcare costs as I know they will do this to me again.

Awful awful system.

Also, once the month is up, your childcare costs that you uploaded disappears.

so you have absolutely not proof that you uploaded those months payments on time.

It's so frustrating. I'm due to be paid on the 15th but my childcare costs haven't been added. It's so, so frustrating and it's the same day I need to pay my rent!

I always find the people on the phone are usually really lovely and empathetic but they aren't able to do anything other than leave a note on your journal for someone to look at the issue. Whether anyone actually looks at it or not is another question.

Hi iam new can u tell my why the child cear proof disappeared after each mth iam confused 🫤

Iam on universal credit why dose the child care payment disappear. New to it so confused 🫤

My MP is on the case for me.

Long story short, they didn't pay me for almost two years. They are now claiming an 'overpayment' for the time they were paying me £0.

Does anybody have the same problem with universal credit childcare payments reported my childcare costs well on time and they still haven’t verified this so the payment was missing for this period as usual nobody comes back on the journal and it’s now been two weeks since I reported it when I phoned up the agent said I’ll send a message through to your work coach and ask them to escalate it as it still is in the checks

Yes, all the time, and even once I booked an appointment to verify the payment and I've been told that they can't do it!!!! So why there's an option for appointment verification??

I’ve been claiming childcare for around 7 months now but this last month I had to ring multiple times before i ended up with a manual payment being sent the day it was due.
I’ve never had any issues before now though

I know this is old but wondered how long it took for you to get this sorted and if they reimbursed you?
I Have been ringing and leaving normal messages since April and still none has replied.

Don't wait any more!
From universal credit:
you think we've made a mistake
It is important that you tell us straight away.
You can ask for a written explanation. You need to contact us within 1 month of the date on this statement . You can write to us at Freepost DWP UNIVERSAL CREDIT FULL SERVICE, or call us.
And because it's now 3 or 4 months, the citizen advisor is written on their website that you have up to 1 year for appeal if there's a reason why you haven't done it yet. Your reason is because you left so many messages but noone responded to you and your issue still exists.So don't wait for them to decide, you will lose your money.

Yes, for the past 12 months my childcare costs are accepted normally but last 2 months they have been missing and I have had to chase numerous times... you also used to get a quick response on the journal but seems to take days to respond now....

Yes, I've had a fucking nightmare with this. I send a message on the journal asking for my costs to be approved, I then get one back saying costs have been approved and will be paid. After a week of no payment I send another message asking where the payment is and get a message saying there was a problem with one of them and I need to resubmit. Resubmit the costs and hear nothing back, send another message asking why. An agent replies to say it's been approved, I just have to wait. No payment arrives so I send another message. Another agent replies with another made up problem and tells me to resubmit. And round and round we go.

It's massively stressing me out, I'm having to pay what I can for childcare but it's more than what I earn so can't pay full amount. Childcare provider is pressuring me to pay, UC won't pay but are quick to sanction me if I don't work the required number of hours 🤨 Fucking piece of shit system.

I’m also having a nightmare with this, i moved over onto universal credit in may and have not yet recieved a nursery payment! They are bastards iv been in to the job Center where iv asked for help and a worker did it all for me and then they say I didn’t do it properly on my journal…. So the staff can’t even do it then? I’m at my wits end now I’m down nearly 2 grand and I will not be able to make the next payment. I can’t go on like this I’m working for about 40 quid a week. Has anyone had any luck with it ? Im thinking I’ll have to leave my job if they keep this up, as I can’t make the next payment. xxx

Once I added childcare costs really near the end of my assessment period. They realised it themselves and updated it really quickly so can't complain.
Another time I did it again really near the end of my assessment period. This time I messaged to say it didn't include childcare. They messaged back really fast and updated it really fast so can't complain.

I’m really hoping I hear something soon. How do you find out when your assessment period is? Thanks

Only the DWP could do this.

Upload and always always screenshot and email the screenshot to yourself. Then you at least have proof you loaded it on time.

Just submitted my childcare costs for this assessment period.
Also submitting proof however I can't submit all my proof cos it will only let you upload a maximum of 5 documents for proof!
So now I have to put a note in the journal asking for them to send me another link so I can send the rest of my proof!!
What a stupid system! I can't be the only one who need to send more things than 5! Why they can't just let you send more in the first place is a mystery

I have been reimbursed for mine now - was missing April, May, June and July’s. I was reimbursed for all of them in one (over £1500). I made an official complaint in the end and advised that I could no longer go to work as I had exhausted all my extra cash paying the childcare fees and now nursery were refusing to admit my daughter as I couldn’t pay; therefore couldn’t go to work!

Only submit 2 or 3 costs at a time so you can upload enough proof in one go. Once that has been accepted, then upload the next 2 or 3. If you have to wait for them to send a link, it takes longer and more chance of a fuck up on their end.

Also, NEVER submit childcare costs near your payment date. My payment was 10 days late once because it was blocked by childcare costs and all my direct debits failed 😔

Ah well let's hope they get back to me fairly fast!!