Advice needed on UC stopped payment

dlpfan2019

Hi all,

A little while back I came here to ask some advice for a friend of mine with UC, you were all very helpful but now she has run into a pretty major issue so here goes....

She started a new job on 6th June this year, her payment date is 19th of each month, she missed the work cut off date so getting paid 6 weeks on 19th July

Her UC payment is 12th of each month

Her timeline is as follows:

Started job 6th June ( full time ) - in journal and change of circumstances
UC payment as scheduled 12th June
Wrote in journal 1st July asking if UC needing additional info re: job as would be paid on 19th after next assessment period- got reply back saying they did not
Email yesterday saying UC has been stopped due to no earnings in assessment period :mad:

Now I am assuming this is because its automated after 2 payments but its really annoying considering she has put it in her journal and asked and given the payment date for work

It is further compounded by two points:

- She is away on holiday this week ( scheduled before she lost job/ on UC ) but is going to try and phone today
- Although she is paid shortly afterwards her train travel for work £278 per month is scheduled for when UC comes in so she will not be able to get into work for a week due to UC payment being stopped

Is it as simple as telling her to call the UC helpline and get them to consult the journal notes?

calcotti

Not sure why no earnings would result in UC payment being stopped - possibly they have concluded that because no earnings she isn't working but also hasn’t provided any evidence of looking for work.

Leaving that aside ringing the helpline is likely to be quickest way to find out what is going on - presumably she has checked that there are no tasks for her to complete.

dlpfan2019

Yeah there is no tasks outstanding and nothing in the journal from work coach since the reply from someone at the Lisahally Service Centre ( assuming that is UC base ) on July 2nd replying to her msg of date she gets paid which ends with " If there are no earnings reported by your employer there will be no deductions from your award"

She screenshotted me the UC notification last night and it says "Your payment was stopped on 9 July 2019. This is because you've told us that you're working but no earnings have been reported"

All very strange

calcotti

dlpfan2019 wrote: »

All very strange

I would say incompetent. I think ringing is the only way to try and deal with this. After ringing may be worth posting on journal to confirm the call.

huckster

There is an automatic UC system feature, where if earnings data was expected, but has not been received, payments are suspended.

This is simply fixed by a phone call to UC to advise them of earnings received during assessment period, so if NIL due to job change, then they advise NIL earnings. Then the payments are unsuspended and relevant payment processed.

calcotti

huckster wrote: »

There is an automatic UC system feature, where if earnings data was expected, but has not been received, payments are suspended.

This is simply fixed by a phone call to UC to advise them of earnings received during assessment period, so if NIL due to job change, then they advise NIL earnings. Then the payments are unsuspended and relevant payment processed.

You would have hoped that someone would have noted the need to override the automatic feature when claimant previously advised them that their first wages would not arrive until after this assessment period.

UC devised on basis that it would be possible to devise a largely automated system. The projected cost savings were based on this. In reality there is huge need for human intervention because of the variability of real life, unfortunately it seems that often the humans can only intervene after the automated system has got it wrong.

huckster

In this situation it is advisable to phone at the end of the assessment period to ensure that UC has the information required. Unfortunately a journal note may not be the best option to avoid the delay in payment caused by lack of earnings data being reported.

dlpfan2019

Just wanted to say thanks for all the help, after 3 phone calls she finally got it sorted

On the 3rd call it ended with the guy saying you just need to make sure the journal is updated- which obviously it was!

Anyway all done

dlpfan2019

Just a quick update,

My friend got her payment last month fine but she told me last night she is having more issues

Got paid and told UC the amount and asked as to whether they could tell her approx what she would be paid via UC so she could budget, was told no - reason she asked was the 2 calculators on the Government site differ with her info by over £200 per month

Then comes to her assessment period and has another message saying it has been stopped as no income has been recorded!!

She is going to call them today but she said its showing on her personal tax Gateway page correctly and I was under the impression that is where they draw the info from

huckster

Sounds like there is a data mismatch issue which is preventing the data being received by UC from HMRC.

If your friend has a slightly different name or name format on her employers payroll, compared to Universal Credit claim, that might be the issue. For example, she may be known as Alexander on her payroll, but on her UC claim she has entered just Alex. If your friend was previously known by a different name because of marriage/divorce, then that might have caused earnings not to be received by UC.