Universal Credit - when to claim after final pay check?

Icequeen99

SP82 wrote: »

Wow, it's a bit of a mine field, isn't it! From his payslips, it looks like although they pay their employees on third week of the month, it doesn't get submitted to HMRC until the last day of the month, so we'll miss out on nearly 2 weeks of UC due to not being able to claim until 2nd Jan. Thank you to everyone for your input

If that is what they are doing then they must either be telling HMRC they pay on the last day of the month (rather that the third week), otherwise they would constantly be filing their submissions late (with penalties potentially charged etc...)

IQ

Spoonie_Turtle

I want to throw something into the mix but I don't know how it would work as my experience was a different situation - but proof of having received payment before you opened your claim (so if it were in the bank the day before you started to claim) can override the HMRC reported info. It would mean a fight before you could even get your first payment but if it means an extra two weeks' worth of UC then it would probably be worth it. Knowing about the issue, you may even be able to get ahead by supplying proof before the decision is made, rather than being surprised by it like I was.

calcotti

Spoonie_Turtle wrote: »

I want to throw something into the mix but I don't know how it would work as my experience was a different situation - but proof of having received payment before you opened your claim (so if it were in the bank the day before you started to claim) can override the HMRC reported info. It would mean a fight before you could even get your first payment but if it means an extra two weeks' worth of UC then it would probably be worth it. Knowing about the issue, you may even be able to get ahead by supplying proof before the decision is made, rather than being surprised by it like I was.

I don't think this would apply when payment has been made earlier than usual, your situation sounds more like the employer reporting late. However it is a minefield.

Spoonie_Turtle

calcotti wrote: »

I don't think this would apply when payment has been made earlier than usual, your situation sounds more like the employer reporting late. However it is a minefield.

My employer paid backpay at the beginning of the month - before I even opened my claim - then my final wage at the end (as usual) but it was reported all at once to HMRC thus telling UC I'd earned more in the AP than I had. [Incidentally my employer generated their HMRC report at the same time as wage slips, so there was no consistent monthly reporting date. Now I understand more about how UC works, I do wonder how many people are messed about by that ]

My point is, if it's gone into the bank account before even opening a claim, then UC theoretically (and supported by the legislation about RTI disputes) can use the actual information to calculate income for that AP, overriding the RTI.

Of course, this is assuming OP's husband will be paid when or after his employment ends; I imagine if still employed a few days after the payment it would at least sound less straightforward to a DM.

HOWEVER OP I'm not necessarily advising you to rely on this because I don't have experience of benefits beyond my own claim and what I read here, and what theoretically should happen is not necessarily what does happen. I just wanted to raise the possibility so you might be able to look into it further and decide accordingly how to proceed.

SP82

I've had a definitive answer from the UC helpline on this - it doesn't matter when he gets paid by his employer, it matters when the payment is reported to HMRC. She said there's no exceptions on this and it's up to my husband to 'sort it out with his employer if they aren't reporting it when they should be' - which is extremely helpful advice, since he doesn't work there anymore, so he can't exactly go telling them when to submit their payroll to HMRC,