Universal Credit and 4 weekly pay

suzy_g

Why cant this be iron out how bloody stupid, as I have said in my other posts don't register at the end of the month or you benefits will get mess up every single month and may result in getting less money as well.

konark

UC only makes sense if you are paid calendar-monthly, any other pay schedule will throw up anomalies because earnings aren't 'smoothed-out' over the year like they are with income tax.. This rigid calendar-monthly assessment period causes significant underpayment of benefits in one or more months.

suzy_g

konark wrote: »

UC only makes sense if you are paid calendar-monthly, any other pay schedule will throw up anomalies because earnings aren't 'smoothed-out' over the year like they are with income tax.. This rigid calendar-monthly assessment period causes significant underpayment of benefits in one or more months.

You would think being paid calendar monthly would result in consistent UC payments throughout the year, however this is not the case for my daughter, in fact it is 10 times worse in her case!
Even though she is paid calendar monthly and her circumstances do not change, her UC are paid erratically every single month.
That is because when the DWP set up this new system they completely overlooked the fact that not all months have a 29th, 30th or 31st.
My daughter made her initial claim for UC online, on the 31st of the month so her assessment periods now run from the 31st to the 30th of every month. But because there isn't a 31st or 30th every month her AP dates change resulting in it picking up 2 months wages in 1 assessment period. Another month it will pick up no wages at all; however the month where it picks up no wages she isn't paid the full amount that she lost out on the previous month, so every time this occurs she is over £100 worse off.
It happens throughout the entire year, not just once per year which she might possibly be able to budget for if that were the case.
So far No one at DWP is interested is sorting this issue out.

suzy_g

Don't forget, if you are paid in 4 weekly wage cycles it means that over the whole year you actually receive 13 wage packets; hence not receiving UC payment once per year. Although this is not ideal it can still be budgeted for and you still receive your full entitlement.
However if you are paid calendar monthly you only receive 12 wage packets per year so in theory you are entitled to receive 12 UC payments (however this isn't the case for my daughter!)

datec66

Annandale is correct on this one. For uc live anyway. And i cant see full service being different to be honest. For live uc if someone is nilled due to earnings for 1 ap and there earnings drop or change of circs increases benefit entitlement in the next ap then the benefit is paid automatically. If they are nilled for 2 consecutive ap's and due benefit in the 3rd 4th 5th or 6th then they.ll get a reaward letter. This says uc knows an amount they can pay you but u need to ring up first to check your claim circs haven't changed. Assuming no change to data held by uc then that payment is paid to them. If there is a change. This amount would be recalculated and paid if not nilled.

If they're nilled due to earnings for 6 consecutive months then claim automatically closes and only then would someone have to make a new claim if their circs changed etc.

datec66

Uc is an income based benefit so if 2 incomes are recieved within an ap then why should they ignore 1 and the state top up their income for that month?. Afterall the rest of the year their income is lower than monthly paid people so they receive more uc benefit for the other 11 months of the year.

Forestgump

You DO need to reapply it says on the DWP site in black and white! Read it!
Regarding the monthly pay cycles the particular scenario that I am in (as Suzy g has mentioned) it is a glitch. You haven't understood my situation correctly.

seven-day-weekend

datec66 wrote: »

Uc is an income based benefit so if 2 incomes are recieved within an ap then why should they ignore 1 and the state top up their income for that month?. Afterall the rest of the year their income is lower than monthly paid people so they receive more uc benefit for the other 11 months of the year.

This is correct. For twelve payments of the year you receive lower pay than if you were paid calendar monthly, so you get more UC than you otherwise would. This 'catches up' on the thirteenth payment, both for wages and UC. It evens out in the end.

You will just have to budget for the reduced UC for the thirteenth payment.

Forestgump

Apologies to datec66. I thought you were referring to my scenario but I have replied read your post and see that you were agreeing with suzy g about the fact that people who are paid 4 weekly actually receive 13 pay packets from their employer over the course of a year so it is right that one month a year their UC payment is reduced.
Sorry I will go and crawl back under my rock now!

annandale

No it does not catch up. People can be left hundreds of pounds worse off than they would be if they didn't get a lower award or zero award of uc if two wages are counted in one assessment period.

Someone detailed on another thread that her daughter would be 500 pounds worse off over the year because of this

You don't get 13 payments of universal credit in a year. It's paid monthly and not four weekly.