Financially struggling with good job and now i have received some money which should be a good thing but ...

[Itisadifficulttime]

I am in a professional job, single mum with 3 kids living at home (5, 11 and 18) and one in uni (19).
Take home pay is between £3458 - £3550/monthly and I am still in overdraft every month.
This is without credit card debt i am also paying off in bits monthly.

4 months ago after a series of happenings leading me to incur further debt about £7,100 more to HMRC, i had a breakdown and was in a very bad way mentally. I was desperate and applied for universal credit. A friend suggested i may be entitled to some help.

I applied, attended two meetings at the jobcentre. 2 weeks later i got a message saying my entitlement was £-43.00. So i forgot about it.

Tonight, i have received £1844 in my account. 628 for May, 608 for June and 608 for July.

I don't trust HMRC. Their mistakes are part of the £7100 debt above. And even though this money is really needed, i am worried this is a mistake and next year or some years down the line i will be asked to pay it back (i.e i will be owing HMRC even more!).

This £608/month UC pay seems a lot. Especially after the message of £-43 entitlement.
But i have looked through the calculations and they have all the right figures.
£3550 for wages, £1150 for rent, 3 kids at home and i am single. The first £379 of my wages is not part of the calculations apparently.

Anyone got experience with UC? Can i trust this money? Can a single parent earning £3458 - £3550 per month be entitled to this much?

I don’t know much about UC, but email them and ask to clarify. If they have fucked up they WILL want it back at some point, so best to sort straight up

I would be amazed if you are entitled to that amount of UC with your take home pay. Not sure why you attended an interview at the job centre as you are already employed.

You can work it out yourself by using your statement.

Take your wage and deduct £379
Times that by 0.55
And then take away the entitlements at the top of your statement and that will be the amount you will get.

For example
£1000 - £379 = £621
£621 x 0.55 = 341.55
341.55 - £1089 = £747.45

Don't forget to take off any advance repayments if you have them

1st interview was to prove my kids were in school - that is what thier message said. So i had to get letters from their school. I got there and it turns out they needed ID documents of myself and kids. I did try to show them the message about school etc. They were not interested.
So went back for the ID document meeting.

Few days later, invited back for another interview as i had not confirmed my commitments. I got there and they wanted an employment history.
I did not find them organised and they are not interested in anything you have to say. It was a computer says no-type scenario each time.

@RayahB , thanks. I did the calculations and came to the same amount. I still find it hard to believe.
I have what is considered a good take home pay and would never have thought i would get anything from universal credit.
They pay a standard element because i am single, and then a housing and children element which is where the bulk of the pay is from.

I don't think you would get 3 x child elements if your youngest was born after April 2017. But yes you would get something due to rent being high. Uc is generous for working people with kids, not so generous for many others.

@Viviennemary , aside from the anxiety this is causing. I would be amazed if this is not a mistake.

@Bluesheeps , i would call in the morning. I dread calling HMRC. The long wait and I am not always convinced that the person i am speaking with has been thorough or is well informed. Previous experiences have shown you can not always rely on what they say.

Yeah it’s painful and they’re often clueless. But if you can at least document you tried to follow up and sort will help in long run

I didn't do your full calculation but a rough one and it comes to the amount that you have said you received. Your rent is high so that will contribute to a lot of it.

I am always hesitant because I ended up owing a lot from the old system through no fault of mine own so I understand how you feel. Universal credit has always been correct though and I've never had any issues. I am a single parent the same as you

It's not HMRC you need to call it is DWP and the waits are not long but the advisors don't generally know much and can give wrong information so be ware of that. I think it's correct, although as you say with your earnings it does seem crazy. It will go down a bit when your 18 year old leaves education. If you ever need to query anything it's best to leave a journal message for your case manager under payments which goes straight to your case manager. They are the ones with the knowledge.

You can check again using the entitledto.co.uk calculator, it will help you to clarify things while you are waiting for HMRC to pick up the phone (if they do!)

That's not right, I'm a single parent. I work full time, take home £1,266 a month and when I paid rent of £670 I got £650 UC a month. So I don't understand with your take home how you'd get that much.

I now own my home and I get £331 UC a month.

@Bluesheeps , true.

Thanks @Babyroobs , didn't know that. That's good advice.

@RayahB , you get it. HMRC take their debts seriously. I could do without the stress.

You can't really compare with op unless you have similar rent and same number of kids.

My rough calculation ( because I don't know if your rent is private rent and what your local housing allowance is ) comes to around £259. I have based this on 2 children assuming your youngest was born after the 2 child cut off date, and assuming around £1000 rent element- it will show your exact rent amount on your statement. If you can clarify exactly what elements are on there then we can help and see if it's correct.
You should have £368.74 standard element
First child element £315 and second child £269.58 - these will appear added together.
Rent element ?

If any of your kids are disabled in receipt of DLA or PIP then this would make the amount higher with addition of child disability element and carers element.

@IWantOutDoI , entitledto calculator is even more generous.

This whole thing feels unreal but it seems it may be true.
I don't know anyone on UC (or rather no-one has said) but if this is true, do people know they can get this support? Or are there a lot of people on UC? And if there are, how have i not known about this? This would have really eased months and months of sleepless nights and anxiety.

I think i will get some sleep and crosscheck with DWP/?my case manager in the morning. I can't really think atm.

Thank you, everyone.

Rent element is 1132.61

My youngest was born before April 2017.

Apologies..just noticed my youngest age is 5 in my OP. That's a typo.

No disability element.

Just the standard element, rent and children element.

Ok so if you have 3 childrens elements on the claim and full rent element, the £600 + amount is likely to be correct. People having a third child after the April 2017 cut off get significantly less. You just got lucky with ages of your kids.

Sounds about right to me.

Thanks @Babyroobs . you have been very helpful. Tbh, i have no knowledge about UC. But i am going to read up on it now.

I don't understand how a person can get any UC when they take home between £3458 - £3550. Im happy for you that you do OP but find it incredible.

I take home much less and don't get a penny UC. I checked and I don't qualify because although I am registered disabled I kept my old studio flat. I rent it out and all of the tenant payment goes on my mortgage for the studio flat. I also have to pay for the home I live in separately. So I have very little income, two children and cant sell the flat as it would be too risky financially at the moment with falling house prices. I'd be way chuffed to get 3.5K a month!

Yeah seems a lot? 60k salary?