Universal Credit and jury duty

[CatLady1987]

Hi all
I can’t for the life of me work this out! I’ve been selected to undertake jury service and have managed to have this deferred to August. My employer is being wonderfully vague on whether or not they will pay me. They don’t have a policy on jury service and have referred to the court paying expenses/wages, so I’m guessing they won’t pay me. My question is this, what happens to Universal Credit (UC) whilst the jury service is ongoing? I know they will continue to pay it, but what earnings will it be based on? Usually my employer reports my earnings and UC work my payment out from there. I work 28 hours a week and I’m a single parent to a five year old. Relying on expenses that are paid in arrears will be hard enough, so it is a worry when you’re the only earner. Does anyone know that’s been through this before? I’ve asked on my journal but had no reply.

Thanks so much!

Universal Credit uses earnings reported to HMRC when they run payroll to claculate what you get in each Assessment Period.

If your net pay goes down then UC will go up.

I don't think the amount the court pays for jury expenses etc counts for UC but you should check that.