Universal credit

[WintersB]

Hi all.
I have been told by citizens advice how much I would be able to receive from universal credit and child benefit whilst on maternity pay from my employer. I will be having my baby in 2/3 weeks and I’m worried about the waiting gap when applying for universal credit as it can take around 5 weeks. Would I be better making a claim now even though I’m technically not eligible as I haven’t had baby yet? Would it keep the claim open and then adjust straight away once I’ve had my baby? Thanks!

Yes it's fine to do this. The claim would not close until you have had six months of zero payments, so even if the first one was zero you would still be fine. UC entitlement is awarded based on your circumstances on the last day of your monthly assessment period so you could still be waiting a while for a payment. It won't adjust as soon as you have your baby, it can take a while for a new baby to be verified etc.

@Miley1967 suggests there may be delays in getting the baby verified. Previously I've been sceptical of this suggestion, suspecting there were cock-ups or whatever in a few isolated cases.

However, I read something on a professional forum on Friday that suggests the DWP have a log jam of kids to verify. Not just newborns but others as well because of how they've decided to handle changes in the amount allowed for rent where people are private tenants. Basically it is thought that they're re verifying loads of children to ensure nobody is getting more (or maybe less ha ha) than they should.