Universal credit

[bluebunny123]

Can anyone tell me about universal credit payments, I'm just wondering is the day you apply the day your money will be paid every month if you're eligible for it?
I'm trying to work out the best date to apply and I'm sure I've heard that that's what happens. Thanks!

The day you apply online is the start of your assessment period and these dates will stay the same so if you applied today your assessment period would run from 22-21st each month. They assess what earnings you have in that period and then payment is made seven days after the last day of your assessment period so payment date would be 28th March. So it's roughly 5 weeks to first pay day depending on how many days in the month.

@Babyroobs thank you!

It's best to keep assessment period dates at least a few days away from work pay days because if for some reason your employer pays you early for Christmas or because normal pay day falls on a weekend or whatever there is then the possibility that if your employer does not report earnings correctly to HMRC, they could count two pay days in your assessment period and this could potentially wipe out any Uc entitlement for that month.

I applied on November 1st and my first payment was 7th December.

I get my UC on the 7th and 21st of every month as I asked if I could be paid fortnightly. Not a lot of people know about this and it does help.

@Babyroobs thanks that is what I was trying to work out about payday. Will leave a gap between it then.

@CuriousCapricorn thanks