Universal Credit: Shared House Deductions

poppy12345

That sounds like non dependent deductions to me. https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/universal-credit-non-dependant-deductions

calcotti

TimaMansio said:

Sure, here are the payments as per UC. There are five people on the agreement; one is absent at the moment due to Covid-19. 
Standard allowance - You get a standard amount each month. You said you're single: £409.89
Housing: You said the total rent for your property is £1,950.00.
There are 5 people on the tenancy agreement. We have calculated your share of the rent is £390.00
You will have to pay your housing to your landlord.
We can pay you £168.33 towards your housing. We cannot pay you the full amount as:
you have 3 adults living with you who are expected to pay towards the rent.
-£221.67

£168.33

Total entitlement before deductions: £578.22

That is clearly wrong. They have apportioned the rent correctly but then treated some of the other people as liable to contribute to your share too. You should be getting the £390 if this is below the :LHA amount. Very frustrating for you that UC have confirmed that it is an error but not done anything about it.
All you can do is post messages in your journal and/or ring them and make clear that you want this corrected going forward and for the proviso assessment periods in which they have done it wrong.

TimaMansio

Having checked poppy12345's link, that does make sense. Perhaps they think my flatmates are my adult children (which is ludicrous as we are all broadly the same age).  Thanks all for your help - I have posted in the journal and will begin the calling on Monday.

TheShape

When you complete your declaration, you are asked if there are other people living with you.  It does state that you should not declare other people living with you if they are joint tenants. 

I suspect you have declared the joint tenants as non dependants.  

When you talk to someone in DWP they should get you to declare a change of circumstances to 'People who live with you', to correctly declare from the start of your claim ( the date the change occurred should be on or before your claim date) how many people live with you (excluding anyone eg joint tenants that you shouldn't have declared).  This should fix the issue going forward and lead to a re-calculation for previous assessment periods.

huckster

Your rent that you are responsible for is 1/5 of the £1950 which is the £390.  
 You have not read the information carefully when you signed up to UC.  It asked you for details of people who live with  you and told you not to include joint tenants.  You noted 3 people who are joint tenants.
What you need to do, is report a change of circumstances under the section, children and other people who live with you.  You can then report the change that the 3 people do not live with you by removing them. It will ask you for the date of change and you need to input the date of when you started the UC claim or date you originally entered the wrong information.   Then send a journal note, explaining that by mistake you entered the name of 3 joint tenants as non dependants and have now reported the change to correct the information.  Ask them to recalculate the Housing entitlement. 

tomtom256

calcotti said:

TimaMansio said:

Sure, here are the payments as per UC. There are five people on the agreement; one is absent at the moment due to Covid-19. 
Standard allowance - You get a standard amount each month. You said you're single: £409.89
Housing: You said the total rent for your property is £1,950.00.
There are 5 people on the tenancy agreement. We have calculated your share of the rent is £390.00
You will have to pay your housing to your landlord.
We can pay you £168.33 towards your housing. We cannot pay you the full amount as:
you have 3 adults living with you who are expected to pay towards the rent.
-£221.67

£168.33

Total entitlement before deductions: £578.22

That is clearly wrong. They have apportioned the rent correctly but then treated some of the other people as liable to contribute to your share too. You should be getting the £390 if this is below the :LHA amount. Very frustrating for you that UC have confirmed that it is an error but not done anything about it.
All you can do is post messages in your journal and/or ring them and make clear that you want this corrected going forward and for the proviso assessment periods in which they have done it wrong.

The OP has to make the change, it isn't something the DWP are allowed to change. They should have been told what to do, i.e. declare a change of who lives with you and put 0 from the start of your claim.

calcotti

tomtom256 said:

calcotti said: That is clearly wrong. They have apportioned the rent correctly but then treated some of the other people as liable to contribute to your share too. You should be getting the £390 if this is below the :LHA amount. Very frustrating for you that UC have confirmed that it is an error but not done anything about it.

All you can do is post messages in your journal and/or ring them and make clear that you want this corrected going forward and for the proviso assessment periods in which they have done it wrong.

The OP has to make the change, it isn't something the DWP are allowed to change. They should have been told what to do, i.e. declare a change of who lives with you and put 0 from the start of your claim.

I understand that from what you theshape and huckster have said. It’s a pity that OP appears not to have been advised of this when they were told the award was wrong.

TimaMansio

huckster said:

Your rent that you are responsible for is 1/5 of the £1950 which is the £390.  
 You have not read the information carefully when you signed up to UC.  It asked you for details of people who live with  you and told you not to include joint tenants.  You noted 3 people who are joint tenants.
What you need to do, is report a change of circumstances under the section, children and other people who live with you.  You can then report the change that the 3 people do not live with you by removing them. It will ask you for the date of change and you need to input the date of when you started the UC claim or date you originally entered the wrong information.   Then send a journal note, explaining that by mistake you entered the name of 3 joint tenants as non dependants and have now reported the change to correct the information.  Ask them to recalculate the Housing entitlement. 

Thanks for this. On checking my UC account now, the section you mention already states "Children: There are no children on your claim. Other people who live with you: There are no other people on your claim."

This is the source of my bafflement as the statement of award then states: "you have 3 adults living with you who are expected to pay towards the rent."

pmlindyloo

TimaMansio said:

Sure, here are the payments as per UC. There are five people on the agreement; one is absent at the moment due to Covid-19. 
Standard allowance - You get a standard amount each month. You said you're single: £409.89
Housing: You said the total rent for your property is £1,950.00.
There are 5 people on the tenancy agreement. We have calculated your share of the rent is £390.00
You will have to pay your housing to your landlord.
We can pay you £168.33 towards your housing. We cannot pay you the full amount as:
you have 3 adults living with you who are expected to pay towards the rent.
-£221.67

£168.33

Total entitlement before deductions: £578.22

We can tell that the DWP are treating the 3 people living with you now as non dependents because the deduction for a non dependent is £73.89 and 3 times that is £221.67.
It is difficult for us to know how that has happened but it has.  Now you need to correct it.
People have told you how to report the change of circumstances.  Before you do that I suggest that you telephone them and ask them exactly what you have to do to correct this mistake.  Have pencil and paper ready in case you have to write down multiple steps.
When you telephone I would also ask them about your 5th tenant.  Are they paying rent or has the tenancy agreement been altered/new one made and the 5th tenant removed and the rent is now shared between you?

tomtom256

I wonder, itf it has been changed, but not in time for your last payment? Maybe it was done after the AP ended and payment already released.