Universal Credit

[Catmatrat]

I’m currently receiving universal credit as I am now a single parent. Prior to this I hadn’t received anything like this for a few years as OH earned over the threshold and it was tax credits back then.

It has somehow worked out that one month I’ll get a big payment ... the next nothing. This is due to some sort of assessment period and in the four week months I am paid twice in this window.

Thinking about it I should obviously just half the payment and keep one half till next month but life isn't that simple and there is always something that needs paid.

Does anyone know if if I spoke to them and explained they might change my window so I’m only being paid once in it? For reference I’m paid on the last Thursday of every month.

Does it tell you this online, that you’ll recieve one large payment?

If you are paid 4 weekly or you sometimes get paid early because of a bank holiday etc then there will be some months when you get two wages fall in your assessment period which will greatly reduceor cancel out your Uc for that month. There is not a lot you can do about it , except try to plot your pay days and your assessment period on a calender so that you can be prepared for when it is going to happen.

This is one of the major (imo deliberate) flaws in Universal Credit. They like to tell people 'it will all even out over the year' , but it does not!! - someone who is paid 4 weekly / weekly / any other schedule that isn't monthly , will potentially LOSE hundreds a year than someone who is paid monthly on the same date every month. Even if their wages and circumstances are exactly the same and their award amounts are supposed to be the same.

See this recent report by the Child Poverty Action Group, aptly named 'rough justice', it's a very interesting report which explains it much better than me - www.cpag.org.uk/content/rough-justice-problems-monthly-assessment-pay-and-circumstances-universal-credit-and-what-ca

Government has known all about this issue since 2012, but presumably because it is saving them money, they don't give a rat's arse about the working people they were pledging to 'make work pay', who will lose out.

If my link doesn't work, please just google "CPAG rough justice" and it will come up.

You may get a bit higher payment on one of the months, and none the next, but it DOES NOT ALWAYS even out in the end, as UC will lie to you - most paid any schedule other than set day monthly are worse off if you calculate the full year payment, than someone paid on the set monthly date. Simply by virtue of the way they are paid by their employer. CPAG have worked out the figures and proven it.

And, no they will not move or change your assessment date even if you ask, it's their policy not to. Very helpful indeed.

Only thing you could possibly do is ask for a loan from them, but you cannot get the loan if you have earned more than £2600 in the past 6 months. Again very helpful to the very people they were proposing to help.

Good luck , sorry there isn't much else I can advise other than approaching your local council welfare team who could maybe give a loan, or deferring any bills (but this is how people get into debt on UC).

I hope against hope that since this shower of shit is being rolled out to more and more people - everyone previously on income support, jsa, esa, or any kind of Tax Credits will be on it in next couple years - that more people will realise they have been shafted by the government - and these policies will be changed.. Can only hope..

Hi both!

Thanks very much for your replies. I’ll have a read through that link. It looks like budgeting is the only way forward, it’s just annoying and surely has to be deliberate as loads of people are paid last Thursday or Friday. So some months are 4 week months and some are 5.

The one thing I can see on the website is the option to change to two fortnightly payments instead of monthly but this wouldn’t even really help!!

I wouldn’t be able to get any of the loans and tbh am not yet at the stage if needing one. Life would just be much easier if my income didn’t vary massively from month to month!

Thanks again for your replies :) xx

I can imagine this hitting a lot of vulnerable people just before Christmas if they get paid early.

Fortnightly payments wouldn't help because zero divided by two payments is still zero.

The fortnightly payments wouldn't stop this, cause your assessment period would still be the same, ie 28th - 27th, it's just the payments split in two.

It is very deliberate. And a barrier to work. I think they were hoping people wouldn't notice that say 2 single mum with 2 children each same ages, same wages, same rent etc, and one is paid less UC than the other just based on which cycle their employer pays them. Extremely unfair, I just hope enough people kick up a fuss when it happens to them that they are forced to change this ridiculous shambles of a policy and implement some of the ideas CPAG set out to fix it in their report.

Hope you will be ok OP

Of course Babyroobs! I feel silly now haha!

It’s so frustrating. I wish they worked it the same way tax credits were done. I suppose this system is maybe less likely to cause overpayments which people then might struggle to pay back as its all real time but just doesn’t seem right to me at all and they must have done it this way intentionally.

My head won’t process if my payments would two equal payments in both months if there was only one wage in the assessment period. Or if the amount they discount before reducing due to income would mean that I would actually end up getting more. That doesn’t make any sense I know! I can’t put into words what I am trying to say ...

2 single mums

one is paid less UC IN TOTAL OVER THE YEAR than the other just because of the cycle their employer happens to pay them

Even my typing fingers get angry about this!!

No don't feel silly , it's a crap confusing system designed to be so complicated that no-one understands it even a lot of the people doing the advising which is why so many people are being wrongly advised.

The exact same thing has happened to me this month and has wiped out my claim completely.

I spent 2 hours over 3 calls and still didn't get through to anyone yesterday, it's an awful system

My claim was also closed in error and I am owed a months payment which I have been fighting for for 8 weeks. Apparently it is with the decision makers who I cannot contact directly. Such utter crap

I'm petrified of being put on UC. I've not heard anything good about it.

Carmatrat The month your two wages fall in one assessment period, you will receive no UC for that month. The system says you were paid twice even if you know you actually do not receive any extra wages, it's just the dates making it look like that.

The next assessment period, you will get no wages and therefore will get the full UC, as if you were not working at all, which you can find the amount of if you go to the entitled to calculator or even better join universal credit survival facebook group and one of the helpful admins will do a calculation for you.

It does not always even out though through the whole year, as it says in the CPAG report, you lose the 'work allowances' and it affects housing payments too. Some people are worse off just be virtue of pay dates by employer. And even if for SOME people it does even out over the year, it can still put people into a spiral of debt and lending fees for the months they nothing..

Also I am not sure if everyone who is currently on Tax Credits realises yet that on UC you have to pay all your childcare upfront to the provider and then scan receipts and proof of payment and wait until the next assessment period until UC pay it back to you. And they quibble about paying it back quite often too. Unlike tax credits where you did not have to pay childcare first and upfront. A barrier to many starting work. Who on UC's jsa equivalent has enough just sitting around to pay childcare with (could be 100s or 1000s for the month) upfront in order to start a low paying job?? But you can't claim the childcare payment of UC until you have paid the childcare first. Crazy.

Apparently there is a flexible payment fund that can help with the first months childcare fees so that may be worth asking about if you find yourself in this situation.

I’m just reading the report now.
Yes I have had two months so far with absolutely zero payment and must admit it’s a struggle especially when I still have a fair whack of childcare to pay. It is very difficult to budget when one month I am much worse off and this month has been difficult.

I feel that since my OH moved out I just have no clue where I stand money wise!

Thanks again for the replies. Such a ridiculous system.

UC is meant to reflect ' real time' so it adjust things the month after unlike Tax credits which were based on the whole years income and so frequently led to overpayments if people earnt more than expected .

@themachinestops - it won't even out for me as next month it shows I get one wage not no wage as I am paid every 4 weeks. My assessment period is 20-19 every month and I was paid on the 20th July and 17th August. I will then be paid 4 weeks later on the 14th September which is in my assessment period. I won't get any more to make up for the lost month. If my pay was monthly I wouldn't lose it. I don't understand how it is fair at all

My payment so far have been £0, £486, £964 then £0 with my take home pay being exactly the same each time. Obviously the big payment is exactly double the smaller one but it just shouldn’t be this way!

If you are paid 4 weekly then it should only happen once a year that you get no UC unless you get paid early for Christmas or bank holiday.

I’m not paid four weekly ... last Thursday of every month so sometimes four weekly and sometimes five weekly xx

Sorry my reply was for BetterEatCheese.

Oh sorry!!