Universal credit

[Angeldelight21]

Hello everyone,

I have recently applied for universal credit and first payment received this week. My last months salary included some backpay so will get less this month plus the tax deduction higher (went back to work in August)

Question, will the actual income be reviewed every month and UC adjusted accordingly?

Many thanks,
TIA

UC only count income minus deductions, so tax doesn't matter and yes, it's done on a month by month basis. If you log into your account it will tell you the dates of your assesment period. I.e the dates between which they count incoming money

Yes. Universal Credit tracks exactly what you earn net, after Tax, NI and Pension, in each monthly Assessment Period.

The mechanism for this is that when your employer runs payroll they submit their figures to HMRC immediately via 'Real Time Information' - RTI.

Where the employee is on UC HMRC transmit that figure to DWP for UC purposes.

Thank you for your replies.

One more thing.I have recently started paying into the pension pot. I really want/need to increase the contribution rate but worried about decreasing my pay.

If I did increase the contribution rate would it effect the UC payment?

Yes, your UC amount would go up if your pension contributions went up. If you pay directly into the pension from your salary, it will automatically be disregarded from your income. If you pay into a private pension after you are paid, you have to report it to universal credit separately.