Please explain UC?

dou_jyr

Hi

Please can someone explain to me how UC works?

I lost my monthly paid job 4 weeks ago and immediately started a claim. The online calculators said I'd get about £850 for 4 weeks.

I've just now been told my payment for the last 4 weeks will be zero after deduction of my final salary payment. What? So anyone who loses their job will effectively get no benefit for the first 4 weeks of the claim?

I have actually got another job starting in a couple weeks time, and it will be paid weekly. DWP explained that I may get UC for the next four weeks even though I am back in work.

I've done some calculations based on how much pay I expect to get in the next four weeks and I reckon I will eventually get about £360 UC for 6 weeks out of work!

Now I have unfortunately had to claim JSA before and I would've got the full 6 weeks JSA + HB under the old system. Can someone explain what is happening now???

tomtom256

On JSA you would have 7 waiting days until you start to receive any money, and up to 5 weeks on UC.


You would also be expected to live off the last earnings you received during the waiting days.


It's also a bit hard to give advice without knowing you're full circumstances i.e. single, couple, kids etc.

dou_jyr

You're quite right, I forgot the 7 waiting days, and a week's HB missed too, depending on when the claim was submitted.

So UC means you get nothing for the first 5 weeks? (Unless your final pay was small) Wow.

And because I'm going to a weekly paid job I'll get money during the 2nd 4 week period reducing the UC in that.

Hmmm good from a taxpayer's POV I suppose.

TELLIT01

Assuming you got a month's money when you left the previous job it's correct that you won't get anything from UC for the same period. If you did you would be getting 'paid' twice for the same period.

[Deleted User]

dou_jyr wrote: »

Hi

I've just now been told my payment for the last 4 weeks will be zero after deduction of my final salary payment. What? So anyone who loses their job will effectively get no benefit for the first 4 weeks of the claim?

I read it as 5 weeks even for first payment and that was from an official link posted by someone on here.

atolaas

Deleted%20User wrote: »

I read it as 5 weeks even for first payment and that was from an official link posted by someone on here.

I'm currently claiming UC and there is a 5 week wait before your 1st payment. You can ask for an advance on your 1st payment if it's going to be a struggle to get through the 5 weeks. Depending on your circumstances, the amounts vary - but £850 sounds about right for a single person with no children. UC now includes all benefits - inc Housing Benefit, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit etc except Child Benefit in one monthly payment. It's suppose to make life easier but all it's done is increase my anxiety levels...you don't know how much you're going to get until a week or less before you're due to be paid. It make budgeting difficult.

dou_jyr

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Assuming you got a month's money when you left the previous job it's correct that you won't get anything from UC for the same period. If you did you would be getting 'paid' twice for the same period.

Well that's what I don't understand. The final pay is for the period up to when I stopped working, not for afterwards. I'm not getting paid during the 4-5 weeks first UC period. So under the old system I'd be eligible for JSA from day 7.

So this is based on when you get a payment, not for the period it was for.

dou_jyr

atolaas wrote: »

It make budgeting difficult.

Damn right it does! Especially when you end up getting nothing!

tomtom256

dou_jyr wrote: »

Well that's what I don't understand. The final pay is for the period up to when I stopped working, not for afterwards. I'm not getting paid during the 4-5 weeks first UC period. So under the old system I'd be eligible for JSA from day 7.

So this is based on when you get a payment, not for the period it was for.

Yes but if you were still working that pay would in theory support you to the next months pay day as per every other person. UC is meant to work in much the same way.

John_Jones

dou_jyr wrote: »

Well that's what I don't understand. The final pay is for the period up to when I stopped working, not for afterwards. I'm not getting paid during the 4-5 weeks first UC period. So under the old system I'd be eligible for JSA from day 7.

So this is based on when you get a payment, not for the period it was for.

But this is not right. It is pay for the previous month of work, but you would be using it to live for the following month, so you do not need benefits for that time.

As a general point everyone should have a couple of months pay saved up for emergencies too. I know that people claim that they cannot, but there has never been a statement of affairs posted on here without a few luxuries. These should be left out for a while until that emergency pot is built up.

smallcoder

Sorry, but have to strongly disagree with some of the points made above.

Your claim should be paid/back dated to the date you stopped working and ceased being paid. If your employer pays you up until 25th of a month, then your claim is valid from the 26th and not, as has been suggested, from one month after that date.

It is pay for the previous month of work, but you would be using it to live for the following month, so you do not need benefits for that time.

I suspect that you are rather good with your money John, and all power to you, but the vast majority of people are not so fortunate. Regardless of how they try to use semantics to convince us otherwise, UC is still effectively Unemployment Benefit - a payment for the period during which you are not receiving income from employment - and as such should and must be paid to cover those periods.

This is how it has always worked in the past, so by now taking away a whole month's benefit payments from new claimants is simply a petty, mean spirited and cruel additional punishment heaped upon someone who is already struggling to survive. It is purely ideological and makes no difference to the public purse which, quite frankly, has been squandered by the government both in the incompetent process of setting up this new benefits scheme.

It's quite simply putting the boot in to people already on the ground. Disgusting.