UC will not close my claim!

shaunb95

Hi there everyone

I left my old job in February and started my new job the 2nd of March. To cover the gap I signed on to UC in February. I received a payment of UC March 25th, the same day I was sent home from work, kept on unpaid leave. I am not eligible for furlough as didn’t get paid until the 30th March. 

Now, because I was paid on the 30th March, UC are giving me a nil award due to my earnings. From past experience, my claim would now close and if I needed to re-apply I would be able to do so straight away and claim a new advance. However, I am now being told due to the Covid situation, they are keeping claims open for 2 assessment periods and will not be closing my claim down. With no earnings from work and no UC payment this now leaves me empty handed until the end of May.

Is there no way to close my UC claim down at all? I have persisted on the phone 5 times spending over an hour each time requesting my claim to just be closed so I can make a rapid reclaim, but I am getting different answers each time. I fail to see how leaving the claim open for 2 assessment periods benefits me as opposed to before. If I had never signed on to UC at all I would be able to sign on now and receive an advance so what is the issue?

Hope someone can help me with what I need to do. Thankyou for reading 

Spoonie_Turtle

Why do you need to close the claim?

Edit: I see now, somehow managed to skip the sentence about the advance. I don't know how they work, whether you'd be eligible for an advance with a rapid reclaim or not.

calcotti

I have no idea whether you would be able to get another advance if the claim had been closed and you did a rapid reclaim. Can you ask for a budgeting advance?

poppy12345

As the OP only claimed UC in February based on that information they won't be entitled to a budgeting advance.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/on-universal-credit/budgeting-advance/

huckster

Have you had previous UC advances ?
Unfortunately, there are people who open/close/reclaim, just so they can obtain advance payments.  
If you phoned 5 times and were told 'no', this may suggest that no advance is available, if  the claim was closed and a reclaim made.  

shaunb95

huckster said:

Have you had previous UC advances ?
Unfortunately, there are people who open/close/reclaim, just so they can obtain advance payments.  
If you phoned 5 times and were told 'no', this may suggest that no advance is available, if  the claim was closed and a reclaim made.  

Yep - I had one last year in January on a previous claim which I paid off out my salary, that was the last time I claimed
Did manage to finally get my claim closed earlier, when I reclaimed, it said I could apply for an advance, but no option to in my journal now. So maybe the rules have changed - I’ve had different people tell me different things on the phone too 😕

Problem ‘solved’ I guess anyway, thank you for your responses guys!