New baby and UC?

[Givemeallthetattoos]

hi, not sure if I'm writing this in the right section but I'm hoping someone will be able to help. My partner works full time but we also receive UC, we have 1 child and a baby due next month! I'm just wondering when I let UC know the change of circumstances will our claim be suspended until the baby is verified? I have googled for hours but cannot find anything. I'm not really concerned about the second child element as long as we still receive our usual monthly payment we will be okay but I have major anxiety and I am stressing lol, any advice or help I would be grateful :)

You report within calendar month as you need to and if child benefit is in payment then it gets verified by then. If it isn’t (which it won’t be )then it gets passed to the jobcentre to verify when you can.

meanwhile you’ll still get normal payments without 2nd child included

Ah thankyou so much! That makes me feel a little better

Without checking I'm not 100% sure the calendar month thing is right.

If it was me I'd be making sure I let UC know as soon as possible so that you got the change of circs with them in the AP within which the child was born.

Hi, can I ask what you mean about the calendar month thing?

Of course I will let them know as soon as I can :) I'm just worried we won't get our usual payment until babys been verified, I've heard of people's claims being suspended for 6-8 weeks and unfortunately in this day and age we will not survive purely of my partner's wages

@Givemeallthetattoos the general principle in Universal Credit is that changes, say an increase in Housing Costs, should be reported and will be applied from the Assessment Period in which they are reported.

If your AP ends on 30 June and report a change in that AP you'll get extra money for the whole of the AP. If you don't report it until 2 July you may lose out.

I was a bit sceptical of the idea that if your child was born tomorrow you had until 11 July to report it irrespective of interaction with your AP. All I was saying was get the CoC bit on your on line account ASAP.

I've heard of people having issues verifying a child and not getting the extra cash for it but not whole accounts being suspended.

It’s ideally within the assessment period for administrative ease.

However UC still uses the DMG code and volume 1 chapter 4 dmg 04201 applies - eithin 1 calendar month.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/659ec52c3308d200131fbde2/dmgch4.pdf