Universal credit payment seems wrong

calcotti

Houndog6105 wrote: »

Calcotti

Her payslip says SSP £429.67

Deductions says for tax

PAYE - £131 not sure what that means?

Does that mean she's been paid back tax?

It's quite likely. PAYE usually calculates tax due on a cumulative monthly basis so when you have a drop in income it can result in a tax refund through PAYE. Unfortunately UC takes this into account as earnings (the old benefits replaced by UC did not do this) which results in a reduction to the UC payable.

I am still puzzled by the SSP figure. SSP is £92.05/week which converts by my calculation to between £390 to 408/month depending on how you calculate it. Having said that it is academic to the amount of UC payable as long as DWP have used an earnings figure that corresponds to the amount received by your wife from her employer.

Ineededaname

It sounds to me like this has all happened because you have not reported your changes correctly. I am not saying this to be harsh to you, but because it is so important you understand what you must do if something changes in future. Which I am sure you can apprecite after what has happended here.

When anything changes you need to report it on your online account using the report a change of circumstances page. This is what will trigger the UC system to start the process for any changes to your payments. Sending a message to them is not enough, although I would have expected them to explain to you what you did need to do when they responded.

The first step to getting this resolved is to login and report these changes. When you report a change it will ask you what date the change is from, and you can put this date in past, so make sure you backdate the change. You need to login to your side of the system and make two changes, the first that your work has ended and the second that you are now a carer for your wife. Your wife will need to login on her side and report that she is no longer working and is now receiving SSP, and also report the changes to her heatlh. The change to her health should ask her if she has a sick note.

If possible see if the doctors can can get you a copy of her old notes. If you are able to actually take the sick notes to the Jobcentre in person, they do not actually need to keep them, so you shouldn't need to get multiple copies. When the doctor gives your wife a sick note in future, you should login to your wifes claim and report the fit note and then take it to the Jobcentre. Someone can confirm it and give it back to you, so you can then send it to her work. It's probably a good idea that you take a copy of each one and keep those for yourselves though.

After you have reported your changes and got the sick notes together, or at least have the current one, I think the best course of action would be to phone them up and book an appointment to see someone in the Jobcentre. You can then explain what has happened and see what they can do to help you get these processes sorted out quickly. You should be able to ask for them to send it up to a decision maker to decide if they can pay the carers element for the previous payments where it was missed. If you did tell them everything on the journal and they didn't give your the correct instructions, I would expect you will get that.

The health decision is seperate and she will have to follow the process as normal, and this will take some time. If your wife is entitled to the LCWRA element then it would late be backdated to the beginning of her sickness. (I believe as someone has mentioned - the first three months are not payable). I think this would go from the date on her sick note and not the date you report the change, but I am not 100% on this bit. This is why you should try to get copies of the previous sick notes if possible.

A couple of other points based on things mentioned in this thread

You do not have a Work Coach on your claim because you were both earning. It is not the case that everyone on UC is assigned to a work coach. Only those people who actually need to attend appointments have a coach. You shouldn't have one in future either as you are a carer, and your wife is still receiving enough wages. Once her SSP stops she may be assigned to a coach.

As Calcotti said - The carer's allowance being deducted is a seperate process and does not mean they can add the carers element.

Someone mentioned the Work Allowance. This person was mistaken saying it is added when someone is receiving SSP. The work allowance is added to a claim if someone is found not fit for work at a health assessment. You also have it if there are children on the claim. You can't get it twice. You will already get this because there are children on the claim, so nothing to think about here.

It sounds like your housing situation is being processed correctly and you are now in an appeal stage. I'm not sure you will get the extra room, as it is based on needing an EXTRA room, not using a different one. You could technically still sleep with your wife in one room downstairs? If she has to use a different room to you for other reasons than it being downstairs, that's what you need to be explaining?

calcotti

The carer element is payable if you meet the conditions. If you have told the DWP that you are a carer it should be included. Even if you have not specifically told them because you receive Carer’s Allowance it is clearly evident that you meet the requirements for the carer element to be included. I suggest you should ask for your UC entitlement to be recalculated for any assessment period that you were receiving Carer’s Allowance but the carer element was not included. This would apply also to any assessment period in which you received CA for only part of the period (if applicable).

Ineededaname

Sorry wrote so much I wasn't clear on that bit. It's not about his eligibility, he was clearly eligible.
He still needs to report he is a carer on the system.
Taking the carers allowance off is just part of communication with other benefits, it will not trigger paying the carers element.
As the change is being reported late, it will proably have to go to a DM to see if it can be backdated, although I expect they will allow it.

Rubyroobs

Ineededaname wrote: »

It sounds to me like this has all happened because you have not reported your changes correctly. I am not saying this to be harsh to you, but because it is so important you understand what you must do if something changes in future. Which I am sure you can apprecite after what has happended here.

When anything changes you need to report it on your online account using the report a change of circumstances page. This is what will trigger the UC system to start the process for any changes to your payments. Sending a message to them is not enough, although I would have expected them to explain to you what you did need to do when they responded.

The first step to getting this resolved is to login and report these changes. When you report a change it will ask you what date the change is from, and you can put this date in past, so make sure you backdate the change. You need to login to your side of the system and make two changes, the first that your work has ended and the second that you are now a carer for your wife. Your wife will need to login on her side and report that she is no longer working and is now receiving SSP, and also report the changes to her heatlh. The change to her health should ask her if she has a sick note.

If possible see if the doctors can can get you a copy of her old notes. If you are able to actually take the sick notes to the Jobcentre in person, they do not actually need to keep them, so you shouldn't need to get multiple copies. When the doctor gives your wife a sick note in future, you should login to your wifes claim and report the fit note and then take it to the Jobcentre. Someone can confirm it and give it back to you, so you can then send it to her work. It's probably a good idea that you take a copy of each one and keep those for yourselves though.

After you have reported your changes and got the sick notes together, or at least have the current one, I think the best course of action would be to phone them up and book an appointment to see someone in the Jobcentre. You can then explain what has happened and see what they can do to help you get these processes sorted out quickly. You should be able to ask for them to send it up to a decision maker to decide if they can pay the carers element for the previous payments where it was missed. If you did tell them everything on the journal and they didn't give your the correct instructions, I would expect you will get that.

The health decision is seperate and she will have to follow the process as normal, and this will take some time. If your wife is entitled to the LCWRA element then it would late be backdated to the beginning of her sickness. (I believe as someone has mentioned - the first three months are not payable). I think this would go from the date on her sick note and not the date you report the change, but I am not 100% on this bit. This is why you should try to get copies of the previous sick notes if possible.

A couple of other points based on things mentioned in this thread

You do not have a Work Coach on your claim because you were both earning. It is not the case that everyone on UC is assigned to a work coach. Only those people who actually need to attend appointments have a coach. You shouldn't have one in future either as you are a carer, and your wife is still receiving enough wages. Once her SSP stops she may be assigned to a coach.

As Calcotti said - The carer's allowance being deducted is a seperate process and does not mean they can add the carers element.

Someone mentioned the Work Allowance. This person was mistaken saying it is added when someone is receiving SSP. The work allowance is added to a claim if someone is found not fit for work at a health assessment. You also have it if there are children on the claim. You can't get it twice. You will already get this because there are children on the claim, so nothing to think about here.

It sounds like your housing situation is being processed correctly and you are now in an appeal stage. I'm not sure you will get the extra room, as it is based on needing an EXTRA room, not using a different one. You could technically still sleep with your wife in one room downstairs? If she has to use a different room to you for other reasons than it being downstairs, that's what you need to be explaining?

It was me that mentioned it before and probably should have rephrased it differently. The way I maybe should have phrased it is that whilst receiving SSP and therefore receiving earnings that they would still receive the work allowance as they have children. Once SSP stops there won't be a work allowance as no one will be treated as working. Sorry I'm not the best at explaining.

Ineededaname

Ahh right that makes sense. Sorry read and replied to this quite quickly!

Houndog6105

Thankyou Ineededaname that was a great reply and I must say thankyou to everybody that replied to my question

I shall call them on Monday about the carers element as this definitely needs looking at and I shall take a sick note for the last 2 months to my local jobcentre.

I have added everything via the online journal already . Absolutely everything. Whenever there has been a change I've always added it via the journal so I'm not sure why the carers element wasn't added. As for the WCA I can understand this is my mistake for not taking the sick note to the jobcentre aswell as my wife's employer but I shall try to get that sorted

Thanks again

huckster

You don't report changes on the journal. That counts for nothing in terms of changing the claim. Use the report a change of circumstances to declare changes.

Houndog6105

Huckster

They have been reported via the change of circumstances so for my wife I reported it via health change last December due to her disability

For me claiming carers allowance this was reported to them via caring for someone on the 2nd of march and I told them I started caring for my wife from the 2nd Feb as this is when PIP and carers allowance started

I have also added lots of notes via the journal as in messages ect just to keep universal credit all up to date with extra notes if they need to read them. An advisor told me to do this for the mandatory reconsideration decision.

Seems that they are overlooking a few things to me

They have not added the carers element
Also the additional bedroom decision seems wrong
And I'm not sure about tax credits but I read that maybe we would qualify for working tax credits now aswell as child tax credits as our income has dropped so much since my wife became disabled

poppy12345

Houndog6105 wrote: »

They have not added the carers element
Also the additional bedroom decision seems wrong
And I'm not sure about tax credits but I read that maybe we would qualify for working tax credits now aswell as child tax credits as our income has dropped so much since my wife became disabled

The additional bedroom decision is because you have 3 bedrooms but you're only entitled to 2. Your wife sleeping downstairs doesn't count.



You can't claim tax credits because it no longer exists, it's all part of UC.