Universal Credit / JSA zero payment after finding work within month

mj2013

I need some advice.

I've just started employment after claiming universal credit for three weeks (plus 1 week delay). I've been told on the phone by Universal Credit because I have ended my claim within the same month I started it I am entitled to nothing.

For those three weeks I attended three meetings, filled out hours of job search notes and applied for many jobs.

As I was out of work for nearly 5 weeks I was dependent on receiving at least some money, but I will get nothing, and this has left me in a really bad situation.

Can someone please tell me this is wrong. The person dealing with my claim was convinced about this.

Sharon87

You need to keep your claim open and it naturally stops paying once you start earning. They should have told you that when you went to cancel it. It does take a while to get money, so that's why you need to keep it open, even if you start work.

Have you actually closed your claim?

Mersey_2

mj2013 wrote: »

I need some advice.

I've just started employment after claiming universal credit for three weeks (plus 1 week delay). I've been told on the phone by Universal Credit because I have ended my claim within the same month I started it I am entitled to nothing.

For those three weeks I attended three meetings, filled out hours of job search notes and applied for many jobs.

As I was out of work for nearly 5 weeks I was dependent on receiving at least some money, but I will get nothing, and this has left me in a really bad situation.

Can someone please tell me this is wrong. The person dealing with my claim was convinced about this.

Universal Credit claims do not close, once live. So, yes you should receive your first payment.


If you begin work, UC claims remain open for 6 months.


Please say you didn't ask to "withdraw" your claim? If the person on the UC national contact centre asked this, this may be maladministration by the DWP. [It's an error which has been highlighted to them - I won't bore you with the details, but there's more info on the rightsnet forum]


This is because UC claims do not close in the way JSA claims did when a claimant starts work.


It may just be that your UC claim has not yet been finalised - sometimes the docs you gave top the JobCentre fail to be uploaded.


Either way, when you call insist on speaking to a supervisor (and raising a complaint on the 'phone).


This is important as you'll also receive NI Credits (and potentially Housing Benefit & Council Tax Support) for this period.


Sadly there are lots of problems at the moment with the UC IT System failing to action claims in the first 5 weeks, so it may just be either an IT error or a manual error by the person you spoke with.

TELLIT01

As Mersey has intimated, if you have withdrawn your claim to UC before it has been fully processed you will be in same position as if you had never made the claim in the first place i.e. no money from it. If you have simply told them you have started work, then UC just sits there in the background.
In theory, once a UC claim has been made it doesn't close down. In practice it isn't that cut and dried. When I was working on Income Support we would get claims coming through where UC had an interest (the claimant had made a previous UC claim). In most cases the claimant would stay on UC, but there were a number of cases where the UC claim would be shut down completely and IS claim processed. You may need to get advice from CAB on this one as UC is a total mess.

mj2013

Thank you for your help,

I initially told DWP I have started working and I would like to end my claim. They told me my UC payment is calculated at the end of the assessment period for the preceding period, as I would be in work at this date I would be entitled to nothing for the period. I asked for clarification twice and the answer was very clear.

At the end of the conversation I think my claim was left open and I have booked a meeting at my job centre to discuss it. Hopefully this was just incorrect advice from DWP, else I will speak to CAB.

mj2013

I had a meeting with the local job centre. They (two of the staff) were convinced I was owed nothing. However universal credit came through and I eventually got a partial payment. Apparently I just slipped through because my previous pay was low; my employer didn't pay me fully and this worked in my favour.

The system is confusing however however one thing is clear; if you find work within a month no payment is guaranteed unless your previous pay was low or a month before applying.

andygb

Sharon87 wrote: »

You need to keep your claim open and it naturally stops paying once you start earning. They should have told you that when you went to cancel it. It does take a while to get money, so that's why you need to keep it open, even if you start work.

Have you actually closed your claim?

When I had my last temporary job a few months ago, my jobcentre advisor told me that I had to close my claim immediately I started work, and then do a "rapid reclaim" when I had to sign on again.