Being paid just outside assessment period.

Johnm2019

Hi,

My assessment period is from the 27th of one month to the 26th of the next, it looks like I am being paid early this month on the 21st December (Which is my first pay from my new job) and then won't get paid again until 28th January.   My questions is, my assessment period is the 27th December to the 26th January, and between those 2 dates I will get 0 income. Does that mean my payment that I get from UC on the 3rd of February will be the full entitlement amount?

Thanks.

Johnm2019

Johnm2019 said:

Hi,

My assessment period is from the 27th of one month to the 26th of the next, it looks like I am being paid early this month on the 21st December (Which is my first pay from my new job) and then won't get paid again until 28th January.   My questions is, my assessment period is the 27th December to the 26th January, and between those 2 dates I will get 0 income. Does that mean my payment that I get from UC on the 3rd of February will be the full entitlement amount?

Thanks.

My payment on the 28th Jan should be about £1450, I'll then get about the same from Universal credit on the 3rd Feb, and then be paid £1450 again on the 28th Feb from work etc.     So it seems if I was to be paid early from on the 26th Jan then this would be taken into the assessment period, and my Universal credit payment would be about £700 less. Is this correct?

calcotti

Assessment period 27th November to 26th December. Earnings received on 21st December will be taken into account if your employer reports them as paid on this date.

What the employer is supposed to do if they pay early is report the pay date as the normal date, so although you will be paid on the 21st they should report the pay date as 28th December if that would be your normal date. If they do this the earnings received on 21st December will not be taken into account until the 27th December to 26th January assessment period.

Either way you are going to have one period in which the earnings are taken into account and one period in which there are no earnings. When you see what happens for first of these periods you will just have to budget accordingly. Earnings received on 28th January will be taken into account for 27th January to 26th February.

From your other thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6206929/are-my-calculations-correct#latest your maximum UC is £1,554.87/month. So in one of these months you will get this amount. In other months if your earnings are £1,450.00 you will get a UC payment of £825.33.

Having an assessment period with the dates you have is potentially very messy on UC depending on whether or not your employer reports your pay dates correctly. If you employer reports the actual dates you may find that occasionally, if you are paid early due to weekends and/or holidays, that you end up with two payments in one assessment period. Be aware that if this happens and UC take both into account you can ask them to reallocate one of the payments to the appropriate assessment period in which it should have been received.

Johnm2019

Hi Calcotti, thanks for the reply.    I started my job on the 7th December, and will be paid for the training hours I have done, so this will be about £350. The usual pay date for the company is the 28th of each month, however because its Christmas they are paying us on the 21st.   Me and my partner rent and we have a little boy, we get up to £1554 a month, before any deductions.  So between 27th November and 26th December our income will be about £350, as I said I am then not paid again until the 28th January, which falls 2 days outside our assessment period, we get paid Universal Credit on the 3rd of each month, so on the 3rd of February will it be the maximum of £1554?  Just by being paid on this date it seems like we are going to gain about £700, as if we were paid for example on the 26th Jan, then my 3rd Feb UC payment would be deducted quite a bit. Am I correct in thinking we basically gain an extra £700 by being lucky I am paid on the 28th monthly.   I would get £1450 work payment on the 28th Jan, then £1450 again on the 3rd of Feb UC, then £1450 work payment 28th Feb, then about £700 on the 3rd March UC after deductions.   Hoping I make sense, thank you for your help!

calcotti

As I said it will depend on how your employer reports the pay days.

Your December pay is going to be taken into account in one AP or the other. Given that whichever AP it is not included in will have no earnings taken into account it isn't going to make any difference to your overall UC either way.

Johnm2019

Hi Calcotti, thanks for the reply.  You say it isn't going to make a difference to my overall UC either way, but that is incorrect.
If I earn £350 between 27th November and 26th December, my UC amount I get paid monthly will be deducted by about £30, as I get a £292 work allowance, so it isn't much.         If I am then paid on 28th January, then my income between 27th December and 26th January will be 0. So I would get the full entitlement amount of UC which is about £1554.    If I am paid early in January, say the 26th then I will be get quite a big deduction from my Feb UC amount due to my earnings. They would take off about £700 after my work allowance.    So it seems if I get paid on the 28th Jan, then I would gain about £700. Which is obviously quite a nice bit of money.

Johnm2019

For some reason your other messages have loaded and you have answered my question, thank you! I have no idea why only half the message loaded earlier. I am glad that in one month I will get the full amount of £1554, and the other month the expected about £800. Thank you!