Universal credit

[Bunny2607]

I unfortunately lost my job monday morning without warning. Without being too outing its been in the news about the company i work for going bust overnight so you may have seen it.

we got paid on Friday last week for January thankfully so February’s bills are paid but I won’t get a wage at end of February so all we will have is DH’s income which is £1300

i’ve put a claim in for UC, don’t really understand it all. I do have a new job lined up, got one very quickly thankfully but i don’t start until 23rd Feb so will only be entitled to 4 days pay (assuming i actually make payroll for February).

our UC said our allowance is £1957 made up of 2 adults 2 children no housing allowance as we have a mortgage and one child is in receipt of higher rate DLA and me
as a carer.

I’m worrying that we won’t be entitled to anything (don’t find out til 5th march), does anyone know whether we would get anything and if so how much? I don’t understand how they work it out as never been entitled to anything before.

thanks

From what I understand, though this is from a single claim not joint..

Your DLA will come in as normal and is not counted. So deduct that from the UC. Just look at your allowance for UC itself.

When it comes to deductions, you'll get an allowance of £694 before deductions as you do not claim housing costs.

So if your income is £1300, you'll take £694 off that which is £606. You'll then lose 55p for each of those £606 from your entitlement. So £333.

So you should get your allowance, minus £333 for earnings.

Again, this may be wildly different for joint claims so hopefully someone with some knowledge will come along soon!!

Speak to Help to Claim:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/contact-us-about-universal-credit/

Thanks. Its a joint claim i have submitted with my husband.
our allowance came out at £1957 and income will be £1300.
we get the work allowance from
what i understand as we both work, and no housing costs.

Just popped on to say I'm glad to hear you have found a new job so quickly. I'm sure you will be entitled to some money. UC also allow you get a loan which you could ask to take then pay back out of your salary. I'm not sure but if you only start work on 23rd of February you might have missed the pay run for Feb and they might add the few days on to March salary.

Yes this is what i was thinking about my salary for February that i’d miss payroll. I asked chat gpt (reliable i know 🤣) and it seemed to think i would get something this month based on me getting zero salary but then next month if i got 5 weeks pay this combined with my husband’s income would mean we didn’t get anything and then when my salary levels out we’d get a small amount of UC each month. I’ve had to take an £8k paycut to secure this job so every penny is counting 😢

, it's so hard ATM with unemployment rising all the time. It's now over 5 percent so you have done really well to get another job so quickly. Once things have settled you can still look for a better paying job. Youight be entitled to a tax refund too as you'll have quite a lot of free pay from February.

Oh yes never thought about a tax refund. I need to ring HMRC anyway as suspect it will be a while til i get a P45 and don’t want to be emergency taxed if they think my new job is a second job.
do you know if the refund will happen automatically?
the closure of the company i work for left approximately 700 people without jobs up and down the country so i did do well to get a job so quickly, which i’m grateful for. Just feel sorry for my co workers and others affected by it

You will be entitled. It will be about £400/£500 as it is very similar to us. Two kids, mortgage, DH earns about the same but I have a very part time job and we get UC.

There are benefit calculators you can use online which should give you an idea of what you're entitled to. https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/as long as you include everything they should be accurate.

You will be entitled. Our monthly income from wages is around £4200 per month, and our UC elements are just slightly higher than yours (two disabled DC) and we get just shy of £400 a month UC.

Thank you. Thats reassuring to know. I’ve been trying to work out if we would get anything once i get back to work as i’m having to take a paycut as well just to get a job, but i think we might still get a top up based on what you have said about your circumstances.