I’m on mat leave currently…I had heard about the 85% you can claim back for childcare through UC and phoned them to query it a few months ago. Spoke to a brilliant advisor who confirmed we would be eligible when I go back to work, but that also as I was only receiving stat pay we were eligible to begin a UC claim then. We’ve had 3 months since and have been awarded around £400 each month which has HUGELY helped as it’s been a big pay loss and I was genuinely concerned how we'd manage once occupational pay ended. I’m still on leave until September.
I get paid on the 22nd of each month, or last working day before if that’s a weekend, so I got paid on the 20th. On the 19th my payslip arrived which stated I was being paid almost 3k. I knew it was wrong and immediately notified work, however they took a week to respond. Basically there’s been a HR mess up as I’d been incorrectly entered as having returned to work at the end of March, so they backpaid me for April and May up to the 20th.
Obviously this means my UC won’t be awarded (usually paid on the 7th) as their information will show my earnings as far too high to have qualified for anything. The problem is work are now trying to fix the issue and obviously requesting back the overpayment, however UC won’t pay so if I pay back the full overpayment I’ll be £400-£500 worse off. Does anyone know how quickly UC will be able to correct this? Work have offered to supply me with a letter to confirm they’re taking the overpayment back and I haven’t earned that much but I’m worried that if there are delays it’s a huge amount of money to be down.