UC and child care costs

Dorothy60

Hi - DD started work 2 months ago and claimed UC before then. Her DD was 2 and she was told that she could introduce her to nursery 2 days a week, for up to two months before starting work, and be paid 85% of the fees.


So she took advantage of this, and yet has never received the refund from UC - can you please confirm that she is entitled? She is going to phone them in her lunch break but I thought I would ask on here to see if anyone knows


Thanks all

huckster

What it might be, is that the UC system will block paying any childcare until the earnings information is received by UC.

So whilst you can register having paid childcare on your UC claim via the report a change screen of your UC online claim, they won't include the childcare in any statement issued until the work condition is met.

You can claim childcare is the assessment period, before you started work, as this is seen as the period where you are preparing to start work. The UC system just won't pay the 85% of childcare until evidence of work is received, which is the earnings data received via HMRC.

And you also must have reported the change on your UC claim that you started work, otherwise this may also cause childcare not to be paid.

Nb. I say you, I mean your Daughter.

Dorothy60

Thank you, Huckster, really helpful - however they know that she's working and she has logged in with her earnings on Feb 4 - We'll see how she gets on when she calls them

huckster

Dorothy60 wrote: »

Thank you, Huckster, really helpful - however they know that she's working and she has logged in with her earnings on Feb 4 - We'll see how she gets on when she calls them

Best not to presume anything. Just in case process not fully followed.

With a UC claim, any change must be registered online through the report a change screen. Advising a Job Centre Work Coach is not enough as they won't update the claim. But the Work Coach will have told your Daughter that she must report the change that she is working and how to register childcare.

When you say she logged in with earnings. For self employed, they register their income and expenses online. There is also a to-do task for all types of employment, to provide earnings over the previous 12 months.

For those employed by an employers, the employers report the earnings to HMRC when they pay your Daughter and UC receives the HMRC earnings data at the end of the UC monthly assessment period. So the work condition is not met until UC have received the earnings data from HMRC.