Universal credit

[Mumof222222]

So last week I made a joint claim onto my claim, payment is 7th assessment period 1st - 30th, I got my payment amount today it’s £149, my rent and children are not included, I phone my local job centre he said it’s because I put the joint claim in to late so they haven’t done the checks needed and I wrote my child’s date of birth wrong, but he couldn’t tell me if I’d still get the money later on or not, said it might have been too late for this month.

my question is has anyone else had this happen, £149 for 4 of us for the month.

People can apply for universal credit at any time of the month/change their claim at any time and if theyve payed you incorrectly they owe you the remainder, but if youve updated your claim with very short notice before you were due to be payed without time for them to review and theyre paying you the same as they were before then it isnt their fault, they cant just hand out money

When I first claimed UC, they didn’t manage to verify one of the dc. She’s a twin and I handed child benefit forms to the registrar to be verified years ago. They paid cb for first child in the form. I didn’t realise I wasn’t getting cb for all of them. As they couldn’t verify one they took all the children off the claim.

First month I was paid as a single adult, never got the money back. I did get a loan I had to repay. I did get five and a half years of back pay of child benefit for twin who had been missed off child benefit claim.

I had previously been working/ in a relationship so wasn’t claiming before.

The amount you receive will be based on your declared circumstances on the last day of your assessment period, so if you made those changes before 30th Nov they should stand. It should be able to be adjusted fairly quickly once they have the correct information and as your pay day is not until 7th there is a few days left for your statement to be updated. Presumably you have wages coming in as well so won't be destitute if it takes a few days to sort? If it has not become a joint claim yet then also presumably your partners wages haven't been counted?

Hi, I updated on the 24th, when I updated from single with rent and children to add my partner on it, it never said anything abou I can’t do that at that time I got told by my work coach to do it now or it would be benefit fraud, it made me update everything I did it didn’t think anything off it since I was already claiming for my children and rent. They are now not included just me and my partner with his earnings as he was made redundant we have no income but the £149 until after Christmas since he starts his new job this week coming.

Ok so that does seem like they had adequate time to update the claim. If your partner was paid some earnings or final pay before 30th Nov then that would be counted as earnings for this assessment period. Hopefully it will all be sorted before your normal UC pay day.

Stop worrying too much, as once it’s verified both elements will be added to your claim again and you will be sent the remainder of the payment you missed from your previous statement. The underpayment will be sent automatically and your old statement will generate and update to the higher UC amount

you do need to give staff time to verify changes as they have high caseloads of claims with payment blockers, so everyone is a priority to help. Your work coach is right that your partner needed to be declared asap. The biggest number of fraudulent UC claims is attributed to claimants not declaring living with a partner

Do bare in mind that the departments who deal with verifying housing and children don’t work on weekends by default

Thank you everyone, I have really bad anxiety, I can stop worrying about it. He last got paid on the 8th of last month of around £400 and had his own bills to pay so obviously nothing left. I just hope it stands as normally it wouldn’t be an issue but it’s the worst time financially to have nothing as we have no income until end of December now. I’ll try phoning again Monday see if I can talk to anyone else who might be better than my work coach at explaining it.

Did you know that work coaches and job centres don’t deal with payment queries at all? It’s not their responsibility at all to deal with these. Stop contacting them - they’ve obviously tried to help you but don’t have the knowledge to answer your concerns in the way you like. Instead you need to send payment queries to the “payment” option of your journal where the person who actually deals with your payment can respond to you properly and answer everything. That’s your case manager at the service centre. All your work coach can do if they’re not sure, is ask your case manager to respond to you. So by sending the message to the right person by using the right option to begin with, you’re cutting out the middle man and will get a quicker reply.

If you have turned it into a joint claim then those £400 of wages will count although the deduction should only be small as the first £344 of earnings is disregarded.

£351 of for wages
£25 for loan from start of the year
left with £149

they didn’t add the 2 children or rent due too not verifying it in time.

partner left redundant got new job, job don’t pay till start of January, I went from season in summer to new job, that job is monthly and not until start of January either, what are the odds. Every is going wrong lately and this just tops it, going to be left without anywhere to live by the looks of it.

Ok that deduction for wages will change when your work allowance is added when your kids are added. they will go back and update the statement. As it stands with no kids on the claim that will affect your deductions. Try not to worry, it will get sorted out.

Why would you be left with nowhere to live? Is this private or council housing?

Because if you don’t pay rent you’ll get an eviction notice is what my landlord said.

Hi wondering if anyone can help me my account is under review but was in the middle of sorting out my partner moving in with us wasn't going to be until January as he had to sort out payments and I wanted to do it as a proper arrangement of split bills so I don't get left with no money I have just heard a horror story online that if I do a joint claim while under review they will take my whole account as untrue and stop payments as they will class it as I am only doing it cos the accounts under review which is untrue I pay all the bills everything is in my name I only get payments in from my mum and dad especially this month and last because it was children's birthdays and there dad who we have decided to give it ago and him move in sends child maintenance payments always has different amounts each month it's been a toxic relationship and had all kinds of trouble and problems but he is coming up to 12months clean from drugs in January also which is why I said I would give him a chance I don't no what to do now do I wait for the review to be over then move him in and do a joint claim or do I do one while it's ongoing they have asked me for I'd and 4 months bank statements any advice would be appreciated or anyone in similar situation

Yes it could likely look suspicious that you are moving the father of your kids back in whilst under a review. Do you know if it's just a routine review or a compliance check because they suspect you are already living with him ?

It looks like the general review everyone has been going threw same message just to check am getting what am entitled to yes I was thinking the same but also thinking why so difficult to do the right thing and if am asked was going to say he is planning on moving in before Christmas he hasn't moved in yet as he has all his bills to sort out before he does and with it been Christmas it's not the best time but then am scared to them be question on me whole claim for doing the right thing or maybe not be payed while they look into it which is scary thought I just don't no what for the best

And also even if it does look suspicious he actually really hasn't lived with me and has never payed any of my bills or even give me a quarter of what my outgoing bills are and has his own finances in his own address so can this really be questioned

@Chelsii555 You should start your own thread. It doesn’t sound like it’s at all a good idea to give your ex a chance- it’s so highly unlikely will change from being toxic to a wonderful partner.

I am unsure how to I am new to this I was trying to make a thread I no I had to move address in January I was trying for a year to do a exchange as he had people coming to me for his debts not company's I think u will no what I mean and was threatened alot I could be making a bad mistake but he has payed them debts off he went and got help and he has got himself a really good job and it's more of a what if I don't give it ago I also don't want to be the reason he thinks fuck it and goes back to his old ways cos he has nothing else

@Chelsii555 If you go to the topic you want to add a thread in- I would suggest ‘Relationships’ you then choose ‘add thread’ near bottom of screen.