Universal credit

[Crystal12345]

About a year ago my partner lost part of his income. He used to do shift work and got shift allowance but now he just does days. As well as this, in my job I get a monthly bonus and this has been made harder to achieve so some months I’m unlikely to get as much as previously. This is likely to leave us short each month. I was speaking to a friend and they said I should do a benefits calculator. When I’ve done this it has said that we could potentially claim universal credit. My question is, what happens on the months when my monthly bonus is higher or my partner does overtime. would we just not get paid those months or would the UC stop all together?

You just wouldn't get paid UC those months, if you have 6 consecutive months of higher earnings and no UC entitlement your claim would then close.

UC will go down when you earn more.

Its calculation starts by adding up the sums to cover things like single/couple claimants, kids, rent plus extra if you're a carer. The product of the calculation is 'Max UC'; the money the law says you need to live on. With no income at all that would be the amount paid every month.

Where you have earnings then UC is reduced by 55p for every net £1 earned. If you've got kids than there will be a work allowance, money you can keep before the 55p 'taper' kicks in.

If you take home enough to reduce UC to nil then you get no UC that month. IIRC if the amount payable is nil in six consecutive months then your claim closes.

If you want to speak to a human about the issue try Help to Claim:

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

Would you mind revealing your combined monthly income OP, on a month with no overtime or bonus?
I'm interested only for purely selfish reasons to see if we might be eligible. I have spent my whole working life thinking you can only claim UC if you're unemployed. I didn't ever know employed people can claim!

There are all sorts of variables like kids, caring and housing costs that affect UC.

Try one of the online prediction tools like turn2us or try contacting Hep to Claim:

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