Universal Credit and 4 weekly pay

nextyeartina

Universal Credit goes live in my area tomorrow for new claimants. I'm not affected yet as I already receive working tax credits. I have received a booklet though from my housing association. I get paid 4 weekly from my job and Universal Credit will be paid monthly. One month during the year I get paid twice. Does this mean that that one month I won't receive any Universal Credit? I'm finding it very confusing x

Derwent

nextyeartina wrote: »

Universal Credit goes live in my area tomorrow for new claimants. I'm not affected yet as I already receive working tax credits. I have received a booklet though from my housing association. I get paid 4 weekly from my job and Universal Credit will be paid monthly. One month during the year I get paid twice. Does this mean that that one month I won't receive any Universal Credit? I'm finding it very confusing x

No it means in one calendar month you will get 2 payments and 1 in the others.

There’s 52 weeks in a year which when divided by 4 equals 13 payments, so one month has to have 2 payments. There’ll be a month where you’ll get paid on the 1st or 2nd and then 28 days later on the 29th or 30th.

The downside to 4 week payments is they’ll be on different dates every month.

nextyeartina

I'm even more confused now . I thought Universal Credit was paid monthly, say the 1st of every month x

annandale

That's not correct. It is paid on the same day every month unless your payment falls on a weekend or bank holiday. Your universal credit may be reduced to zero but that depends on how much you earn in wages.

Uc is paid monthly and not four weekly.

nextyeartina

That's what I was thinking. So the month I get paid twice, I'm not going to receive any Universal Credit. That's quite wrong really x

Ames

Derwent wrote: »

No it means in one calendar month you will get 2 payments and 1 in the others.

There’s 52 weeks in a year which when divided by 4 equals 13 payments, so one month has to have 2 payments. There’ll be a month where you’ll get paid on the 1st or 2nd and then 28 days later on the 29th or 30th.

The downside to 4 week payments is they’ll be on different dates every month.

That's the OPs wages. Her UC will be paid monthly, so once a year their UC payment period will have two lots of wages in it. This will reduce the UC, possibly to zero depending how much the wages are.

nextyeartina wrote: »

I'm even more confused now . I thought Universal Credit was paid monthly, say the 1st of every month x

It is. If you can, avoid a UC payment day between the 29th and 31st.

Forestgump

Yes sorry your UC will reduce and could possibly reduce to zero that month. Its worth knowing that if your payments are reduced to zero then you will have to reapply for UC again for the following month. I'm in a similar situation although I'm paid calendar monthly. However this anomaly occurs every single month for me. It's impossible to budget as my payments are so erratic. So this doesn't happen to you, do not make a claim on between the 28th and 1st of the month otherwise you could end up in my predicament!

annandale

They shouldn't need to reapply again if they get a zero award. Uc claims don't close for 6 months after you relinquish them.

Forestgump

Unfortunately you do need to reapply :-(
I can't post a link here as I am new to this site so not allowed to post links yet. If you type 'universal credit payment cycles' into Google you will see information about different wage cycles and reapplying if your UC payments are reduced to zero

nextyeartina

I read that you have to reapply too x


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments-payment-cycles

Forestgump

Yes yet another issue with UC's!