Universal Credit payment stopped?

Snork_Maiden_2

Hello
I really need some advice
I was out of work the last few months so I was claiming the new universal credit for a single person no children, All has been fine but I now have a new job which I started about 5 weeks ago its average 20 hours a week minimum wage. On universal credit I was lead to believe that when I got a job I would stay on universal credit and my payments would "gradually reduce" and my earnings would get topped up and all these other promises and that I wouldn't lose my benefits all at once. Well yesterday the day before I was due my monthly UC payment I had a letter saying I will no longer be getting any money at all and no payment has gone in today. Is this correct?? I was never told my benefit would stop by my advisor or on the phone when I told them about my new job.
Any advice would be appreciated.

pmlindyloo

Do you rent? Did you have housing costs included in your UC?

You could put your details into the benefit calculator on https://www.entitledto.co.uk to see if you are entitled to anything on UC.

baza52

how old are you?
Do you rent?
Any dependants?

pmlindyloo

This might explain why you were told that there was a tapering of your UC once you started work.

The rules changed in April 2016.

QUOTED QUESTION.

I'm getting Universal Credit to top up my wages. I have heard about some changes from April 2016 . What are they?



The changes are to do with your "Work Allowance" - and change the way your net wages affect how much Universal Credit you get when it's calculated at the end of each monthly assessment period.

The DWP calculate your Universal Credit for each month in this way:

Firstly they work out the most Universal Credit you / your family could have if you had no income at all.
Then for every pound you earn, you "lose" 65p Universal Credit (i.e. the maximum Universal Credit is reduced by 65% of your earnings.)
However, the Work Allowance is an amount of your earnings which is disregarded, i.e. it doesn't reduce your Universal Credit award. The amount of the Work Allowance varies according to your circumstances. (Note that some other income affects how much Universal Credit you can have too.)

Before 11th April 2016, some people had a Work Allowance (an amount of their wages which was ignored completely when working out the amount of Universal Credit.)

From 11th April onwards, some people have no Work Allowance. In other words, 65% of all of their net wages will reduce the amount of Universal Credit they can get. Also, some people will have a lower Work Allowance, i.e. less of their earnings will be ignored.

The government has suggested that if you are struggling to cope with the effects of this change, you could ask your Work Coach at the Job Centre to consider allowing you some financial assistance from the Flexible Support Fund. If you are told that the Flexible Support Fund cannot be paid for this, seek advice. Contact us on 0300 304 5000.

Snork_Maiden_2

Thank you pmlindyloo, I didn't know the rules had changed. I saw my advisor regularly and she didn't mention this, I had no letters telling me about it. I have been thinking I would still get some extra money today and suddenly I didn't, I have direct debits I nearly went overdrawn and surely this will happen to people thinking the same. So working 20 hours a week means no benefit, this is the same as job seekers then where as soon as you get a job payments stop. Its all very confusing but I think they should at least keep claimants updated and say if payments will stop more than one day before :eek:

I will write them a letter asking for more information

Mersey_2

No, it doesn't sound right.


There have sadly been many errors with both delays and incorrect payments of UC.


Telephone the UC contact centre.

red_devil

call the call centre. The whole thing is a fiasco.

pmlindyloo

If you are single and have no rent to pay, and no dependants then this is correct. The Work Allowance went to £0 in April 2016.

http://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Work-allowance-Universal-Credit

Do you have rent to pay?

Mersey_2

Yes, the work allowance went to £0 for most UC Claimants, but that doesn't mean most UC claimants receive £0!


UC is calculated as follows:


1. Earnings minus income tax, NICs, pension contribution.
2. Deduct work allowance (if eligible)
3. Taper the net figure @ the 65% rate (ie x 0.65)




The Universal Credit rate for a claimant (aged 25+) is £317.82.
ie the same as a JSA Claimant. It decreases the higher the net earnings as per the above formula.


Receiving no payment and no letter suggests the UC system has failed (as the Rules state a letter is sent out each month detailing the calculation). It happens more to self-employed UC claimants reporting earnings each month than employees, but does happen to some in both camps, sadly.

TELLIT01

Mersey wrote: »

Receiving no payment and no letter suggests the UC system has failed (as the Rules state a letter is sent out each month detailing the calculation). It happens more to self-employed UC claimants reporting earnings each month than employees, but does happen to some in both camps, sadly.

Being polite, I think it fair to say that the UC computer systems are less than robust and many claims require constant manual intervention. If the system chucks a wobbly (technical term) it's unlikely to be noticed until the claimant calls to ask what's going on. There simply aren't enough staff to check that every payment has gone through as expected.

micky2phones

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Being polite, I think it fair to say that the UC computer systems are less than robust and many claims require constant manual intervention. If the system chucks a wobbly (technical term) it's unlikely to be noticed until the claimant calls to ask what's going on. There simply aren't enough staff to check that every payment has gone through as expected.

Hi, i agree with you , i heard/read somewhere a while back that one of the reasons UC started with single people was due to thier computer systems they would not cope.

The more i read about tells like the O.P s the more it seems to be true