UC - Cost of Living Payment

[MyneighbourisTotoro]

My family receives UC and we are really struggling.
We only applied for it at the start of April, our first payment was in May.

Online it says:

To get the first Cost of Living Payment of £326, you must have been entitled to a payment (or later found to be entitled to a payment) of either:
Universal Credit for an assessment period that ended in the period 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022, or
income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support or Pension Credit for any day in the period 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022.

I don’t know if it’s the wording or because of my autism but I’m really struggling to understand that statement.

Can anyone help me understand if we are entitled to Julys payment as I’ve messaged UC via my journal and no one is saying a direct yes or no to me, I just keep getting copy and paste answers from the government website.

This payment will mean we can have heating and hot water for winter so I’m really hoping we do fall into the eligibility criteria.

When in may did you get it?
I might be wrong but it seems like you should possibly to me.
These things are written to be confusing I think!

If your assessment period ended between those dates then you will get the payment. Your assessment period dates will be on your statement.

What were the dates of your first assessment period?

From what I understand if you received a U.C payment anywhere between April 25th and May 25th you will be eligible. (Your assessment period should be available on your online account but normally ends around 5 days before your payment into your bank).

Can I just say I don’t know what’s happed as I know the rule is you must have had an actual payment at a certain time but my sister got the payment today and her and her husband have always had £0 every month for their element as they both earn to much to get a single 1p from UC
so she checked the months of March April and may and she got £0 it’s there in black and white
so why did she get the payment ? strange must be a mistake

Lucky her ! I just missed out as my first assessment period ended 11 days after the stated period. I am disappointed but i know they had to make the cut off somewhere. Hoping I get paid by mistake too 😄

Do they get zero because either their rent is paid direct to their landlord or they have some debt repayments coming off which make the award zero? If so then I think it would still be paid.

I hope you get lucky too and baby no they get £0 as they earn too much DH is a painter and decorator full time he can bring £1000 a week alone (not self employed) and sister works at asda full time that’s why they get nothing

Sorry if it's a daft question but why did they claim with earnings so high ? Or is it just because of variable earnings ? I guess the claim will just close anyway after six months of zero payments.

I would also suggest they don't spend the cost of living payment ( maybe they won't need to whilst having 5k of wages per month), in case they realize their mistake and want it back !

The claim does not shut down it’s been like that for years I think many years ago his earning where up and down but not nowadays and yes baby my thoughts too

Hi everyone and thank you, so we received our first payment on the 14th May and our assessment period was between 8 April to 7 May 2022.

Yes you are entitled to it.

Hi I made a claim on the 13th May for UC as a top for work, I'm not sure if I qualify for the living payment or not, I'm no good with reading important notices etc as it literally gives me an headache and none of my family want to help seeing as they have recieved theirs. I know it says you must be getting UC or at least qualify for a payment to receive it, I'm sure I qualify as my application date was the 13th May, I've not received my 1st payment and it says they paid out to everyone from the 2nd to the 7th September? Can someone help me or explain weather I even qualify please. Thank you

I missed the first payment by 1 day

@ttennisha

Yo get the first Cost of Living Payment of £326, you must have been entitled to a payment (or later found to be entitled to a payment) of Universal Credit for an assessment period that ended in the period 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022.

If you claimed on 13th May and submitted a claim then your assessment period would have been 13th May to 12th June so sadly no not entitled to the first payment.

Thank you, you're the only one that's made it easy for me to understand. Devastated I dont qualify at all

@ttennisha sorry you don’t qualify. Did you get tax credits before?

Yes but they stopped as I was in a relationship and didnt want to joint claim