Anyone good at maths?

geordie_joe

I get paid every calendar month, but for housing benefit the council calculate my weekly wage.

So my question is, how do they do that?

As an example, I got paid (net with no deductions) £528.23 for the period 1 to 30 November.

According to the council this is £128.23 per week.

How did they arrive at that figure?

There are no other factors to take into consideration, no tax or NI and no other income.

stebiz

Well it has puzzled me???

Even if you work it out x 12 and divide by 52 it is out.
Or work out the daily rate ie /30 and times by 365/6 it is out.

ikati5

I am not sure of the exact sum but while we wait for someone on here who can be more specific, its something like your wage x 12 months divide by 52 weeks, if you get 2 weeks free rent like I do, it might be divided by 50 weeks. I have also heard it x by 13 because the weeks don't actually work out at 12 months. Complicated!!!!

shirlgirl2004

Certainly from my time working in HR I know we used to work on 52.14 weeks in a year. From a quick look it looks as though they have done something like your salary divided by 30 days times by 366 days in the year and then divided by 50.14 weeks. You could always ask them for their exact formula there's no reason not to give it to you.

Notmyrealname

Multiply by 3 then divide by 13.

geordie_joe

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Multiply by 3 then divide by 13.

Equals £121.90, quite a way out.

geordie_joe

OK, just to complicate matters, the "detail" says

Gross Earnings 130.21
Less tax 1.38
Net earnings 128.83

I didn't pay any tax! My gross pay was 528.23 and my net pay was 528.23.

Notmyrealname

geordie_joe wrote: »

Equals £121.90, quite a way out.

TBH, I don't really care but it is another way of working out an average, there being 13 weeks in 1/4 of a year.

mildred1978

Looks like a typo to me. Last 4 digits of each number is the same

geordie_joe

Well I rang them and they promised to supply the answer. Got a letter today saying add this months and last months earnings then divide by two to get my averge monthly wage. Then work out my weekly income from that.

But the previous month I did a lot of overtime and if I do it their way my "average monthly income" is near to £580, making their figure even further out!

The original letter I got has the Benefits Manager's name on it, so I will write to him and ask him how he came to those figures. Might also pop to the CAB on Wednesday to see if they know who to work it out.

uganda

geordie_joe wrote: »

Well I rang them and they promised to supply the answer. Got a letter today saying add this months and last months earnings then divide by two to get my averge monthly wage. Then work out my weekly income from that.

But the previous month I did a lot of overtime and if I do it their way my "average monthly income" is near to £580, making their figure even further out!

The original letter I got has the Benefits Manager's name on it, so I will write to him and ask him how he came to those figures. Might also pop to the CAB on Wednesday to see if they know who to work it out.

They did the normal thing when working out your wages - they took your last two months' payslips and worked out an average. There is nothing wrong with them doing that.

When you say October you did a lot of overtime, is that a normal thing or was it a one-off? How much have you earned as an average all year? Have you claimed recently because as of November your pay has reduced?

All these things can and should be taken into account. But they won't be if you don't tell them, they're not psychic.

If you are not going to be doing regular overtime, I would fetch down December's payslip and ask for a reconsideration. If your claim dates back prior to November then I would assess that period based on your October payslip or your 'year-to-date' figures, whatever was more representative and work out the next period based on November and December.