Universal credit

[Kat0702]

Hi, does anyone know if you get a bonus in work (one off sum) in you month wage. Will it affect the childcare cost element? Thanks in advance

Yes it will if it wipes out your entitlement to UC as zero that month.

Yes it's all earnings. My husbands bonus takes us down from about a grand to £200 which means he has to save his bonus to pay for our childcare fees. Bonuses are pointless on UC, you don't see most of it. I got a £1600 bonus once and kept less than £400!

Yes, no elements on universal credit are protected.

As above. Max UC, the sum of your Standard Allowance and other elements including childcare, for practical purposes is the amount the law says you need to live on.

Earnings after work allowance reduce UC by 55p for every £1.

Bonuses are, in a sense, deferred pay. It's difficult to see a way of treating them differently that's workable and doesn't open itself to abuse.

UC gets wiped put unfortunately so with your bonus reduce it by 55% to show you what you have left to actually spend.

I negotiated my bonus in Annual leave days. So got extra holiday and no money.

Any additional money paid to you in your assessment period will reduce your UC by 55p for each additional pound paid. Whether that reduces your UC to zero will depend on your total award and the amount of bonus received. No element of your UC is protected from deductions, all elements together make up your total UC award and any earnings reduce the whole award.