Is this just getting ridiculous! UNIVERSAL CREDIT

[ChristmasTime2023]

So had a review with UC today phone call she stated she would up date the journal with what I need to provide.
A full length photo of myself standing outside my front door with the key in the lock!?
Then a letter from the children's school & nursery saying they attend there
A letter from the children's gp
Passport photos
Child benefit award letter
Birth certificates (they have had birth certificates before )

This isn't a new claim either I dont understand why gp letters are needed they want one for me and my partner too.

Also on the phone call asked who I use for my gas and electricity
Ive never been asked these things before seems strange to ask?
Anyone else had a review lately what did they ask for.

Partner works full time if that matters.

If the earned income on our joint UC claim was £50k annually, we would still be entitled to around £1k in UC per month.

That seems a lot and must feel kind of intrusive. I guess there has been a big scandal not long ago (probably several) of a group running some kind of benefits cheat mill, where they get people to pose as others and claimed UC for hundreds of people who didn't exist or didn't live in UK.

Maybe that's why they're trying to be extra vigilant with reviews?

Annoying though. Hope they leave you alone again soon!

You owe nobody an explanation, least of all nosy parkers on anonymous sites.

Its for my children and they haven't had any prescriptions or hospital letters, I signed up for the NHS app thing but it only has my details on there so I will have to ask the GP. I have my youngests red book that has her nhs number and thinhs on it I wonder if they will accept that

In that case you probably will need the doctor’s letter.

Thank you! I appreciate it.

I had a friend with ME. She often has to bail out of meet ups due to extreme tiredness. It wasn't unusual for her to invite people to her house but she had fallen asleep by time we arrived. She was often sleeping on a bench in in the pub if we went for breakfast for example and that was with someone collecting her from her house and driving to the pub car park. A hospital appointment ( we took turns at taking her) would wipe her out for a day or 2 and she was practically bed bound. Very debilitating

It all seems very inconsistent as well which just isn't fair to those who do get asked more of than others.

When I received my son's DLA back payment, it took me over 6k too and.....nothing at all happened.

Can you break that down for me please?
I'm not sure I understand.

From what I understand if you have a couple earning say 24K a year each and they have kids and pay rent, in many cases they’ll be eligible for UC, I could be wrong though.

Play around with those figures on a benefits entitlement website and you’ll see.

Just a thought re some apparently rand.checks
When I worked many years ago (pre internet) for the department of employment, each week a random claim would be chosen to check up on when the person came in to sign on.
It was as much to try and catch someone in the office who was making a fictional claim. It never did at the offices I worked at when I was there, thank goodness, but I understand that occasionally it caught someone cutting an inside fraud.
Not sure if that would be possible nowadays but elsewhere crooked bookeepers have stolen from their employers, and bankers have embezzled too
Thankfully rare but fraud isn't always on the outside

DLA and other benefits back payments aren't counted as capital. Sometimes if it looks like you've got a lot of savings as a result of a back payment the DWP will query it but then they'll send you a letter setting out how much is disregarded and for how long. The wait for a decision for PIP is so long, people are getting five figure back payments.

I would like to know too...how can someone earning 50K get UC? Asking for a friend

I think you'd need to have a quite a high rent and a few kids on the claim to get UC at earnings of 50k. When you have kids or someone on LCWRA it becomes quite a generous benefit with the work allowances and taper rates.
I came across a couple this week. No kids .One of the couple couldn't work due to health. The other working part time earning £1200 a month with a social housing rent of around £400 a month. They were getting around £1000 UC per month UC plus PIP etc.
It's the single people with no work allowances that struggle. For them it's a very basic amount to live on or a small top up to help with rent. If you are single and have a mortage and lose your job you are pretty stuffed.

It really only takes a high rent or a couple of disabled children on the claim ( child disability elements hugely increase a claim). Or carers elements for the parents which they can claim even if earnings a highish wage. There's no earnings thresholds on carers element. You could have one of a couple claiming carers element for an elderly parent , one for a disabled child. That immediately boosts the UC claim by £400 a month. The higher the total of all the UC elements then the more chance of getting some UC even after deductions for earnings. I think we'll see the UC system being further scrutinised in the near future. They are already cutting the LCWRA in half from April.

The wait for a decision for DLA can be very long too. Especially if it goes all the way to tribunal. Then you also get back payments for UC elements related to claiming DLA as well which can also be very large.

In my case, it was never queried and I never received a letter about it.

But then in almost 2 years, I've never had a UC review either.

Right so when people wang on about people on middle incomes claiming benefits it's because they have caring responsibilities and are likely to be struggling to make ends meet. I have no problem with that.

Having caring responsibilities and claiming carers element would boost the UC claim but could just as easily be because of high rent or having numerous children on the claim but yes usually there is a good reason for it being high or them still being able to claim on a high income !

I had a UC review last year.

They asked me to take a photo of myself holding my passport next to my face.

Sent one in. Rejected as couldn't see all four corners of the passport (one corner had a about a mm missing from the photo).

Sent it again. Rejected because it was using the selfie side of my camera not the front facing camera.

So I rigged up a makeshift tripod for my phone camera and set the timer as I've no one in the house to hold it to the exacting conditions they needed, and took a third photo. 🙄

I then had to send in three months worth of my bank statements for a random set of dates, from all of my bank accounts in a certain file format, jpg.

Sent in. Rejected. They didn't have the address on. I'd not even noticed this, if just downloaded them from my online banking and sent them all in.

I tried to get them through my online banking with my address on and couldn't. I tried the online chat and it was very "computer says no".

So I tried telephone banking and after a 30 minute phonecall I got them all sent to me for the set dates, from all my accounts, with my address on.

I then had a phonecall appointment where they asked me questions like:

"I can see a standing order for £5 that says Xmas savings and goes to your other account, can you tell me what it's for?."

"I can see a direct debit for sheilas wheels insurance, can you tell me what it's for?" 🤦

And so on. I'm autistic and struggle with phone calls/ auditory processing. I also have anxiety.

They finished the call by saying they may or may not call back within two weeks for another telephone appointment.

20 days later I had ANOTHER phone call appointment which was very very similar to the first one.

I actually cried with relief when they said my review was finished and fine. I spent almost a month so so stressed and anxious.

I'm a single parent carer and have conditions myself. I know they have to check things but it seems such a farcical long winded process!

If it happens in future I will be asking for more support with it.

I dread to think how my son will navigate these things when I'm gone. He needs a LOT more support than me and is so anxious and vulnerable. It's scary to think if he doesn't manage a review check like this he'd be thrown into financial crisis.

That's awful. It really does all sound excessive.

Sure. So, as I mentioned it depends on individual circumstances. I'll tell you mine first of all.

UC is composed of multiple "elements". They add them all up to get the total award amount then deductions are made for income and sometimes for repayments of certain loans, debts and advance payments. The remaining amount is how much the claimant will receive that month.

Each month long period is based on circumstances and income during the claimant's assessment period. This period depends on when the first claim to UC is made. For example my assessment period is the 10th of the month to the 9th of the next month. The amount is calculated and I then receive my payment on the 16th.

For earned income, there is something called a work allowance. This is not a payment which is added to a claim but is the amount of income per claim that can be earned before any deductions will start to be made from the UC award. If there is no housing element on the claim the work allowance is £684. If there is housing element then work allowance is £411. Over and above these amounts, deductions are made at the rate of 55p per £1 of earned income. This is based on net income. For example, the last earned income on my claim was £2300 per month and we don't receive housing element. The calculation is £2300 - £684 which leaves £1616. Multiply this by 0.55 to get £888.80. This is how much will be deducted.

My UC award is made up of the following elements:

Couple over 25 - £628.10
2 Children born after April 2017 - £585.62
Childcare - £515
LCWRA - £423.27
Carer (this is a different payment from Carer's Allowance which is paid separately. Carer's Allowance and the Carer element of UC can both be claimed at the same time but if someone receives CA the monthly amount is deducted in full from their UC. We do not claim CA) - £201.68

Total - £2353.67 before deductions
Minus the £888 for earned income which leaves £1464.87 and that's our UC payment for the month.

This can be tweaked to fit many different scenarios and circumstances. Yes, we receive elements for health related issues but equally if didn't but we received housing element or had a higher childcare bill we could be looking at a similar amount. For a salary of £50k the deduction would be in the region of £1435 so we would still receive £918 UC.

For a basic award of a couple with 2 children, no housing element, no childcare and no disability/carer elements then no a salary of £50k would mean no payment of UC as the deduction for income would wipe out the total UC amount.

Sure. So, as I mentioned it depends on individual circumstances. I'll tell you mine first of all.
UC is composed of multiple "elements". They add them all up to get the total award amount then deductions are made for income and sometimes for repayments of certain loans, debts and advance payments. The remaining amount is how much the claimant will receive that month.
Each month long period is based on circumstances and income during the claimant's assessment period. This period depends on when the first claim to UC is made. For example my assessment period is the 10th of the month to the 9th of the next month. The amount is calculated and I then receive my payment on the 16th.
For earned income, there is something called a work allowance. This is not a payment which is added to a claim but is the amount of income per claim that can be earned before any deductions will start to be made from the UC award. If there is no housing element on the claim the work allowance is £684. If there is housing element then work allowance is £411. Over and above these amounts, deductions are made at the rate of 55p per £1 of earned income. This is based on net income. For example, the last earned income on my claim was £2300 per month and we don't receive housing element. The calculation is £2300 - £684 which leaves £1616. Multiply this by 0.55 to get £888.80. This is how much will be deducted.
My UC award is made up of the following elements:
Couple over 25 - £628.10
2 Children born after April 2017 - £585.62
Childcare - £515
LCWRA - £423.27
Carer (this is a different payment from Carer's Allowance which is paid separately. Carer's Allowance and the Carer element of UC can both be claimed at the same time but if someone receives CA the monthly amount is deducted in full from their UC. We do not claim CA) - £201.68
Total - £2353.67 before deductions
Minus the £888 for earned income which leaves £1464.87 and that's our UC payment for the month.
This can be tweaked to fit many different scenarios and circumstances. Yes, we receive elements for health related issues but equally if didn't but we received housing element or had a higher childcare bill we could be looking at a similar amount. For a salary of £50k the deduction would be in the region of £1435 so we would still receive £918 UC.
For a basic award of a couple with 2 children, no housing element, no childcare and no disability/carer elements then no a salary of £50k would mean no payment of UC as the deduction for income would wipe out the total UC amount.

Thanks. As a single mum I even had to pay back child benefit for my youngest child before he turned 18 just because my income hit 50k. But then again, I have a mortgage so would never be entitled to anything anyway....

Both of these.

You can get UC if you own a house.