New UC claim

Needhelpsos

Hi. 

I’m wondering if anyone is able to help me? Me and my husband separated before Christmas and I am eligible for universal credit. I applied as soon as I got the keys to my new house at the end of January. The assessment period went from the 30th of January until the 26th of February and here is where my problem lies. I get paid the 27th of each month from my job and because I never got any salary throughout the assessment period I ended up getting around £1700 universal credit vs the £600 the online calculators tell me I am entitled to for childcare contributions. 

I of course phoned universal credit and told them all this but they said it would work itself out the next month. 

The assessment period for this month is the 27th to the 26th but because the 27th of March falls on the weekend I’ll actually get two salaries through this period - and I am getting my annual bonus. So it’ll basically look like I’m loaded - which I’m definitely not! I already know I’m getting nothing this month as the expectations were set but I thought maybe because of covid I wouldn’t get a bonus and I’m really worried that because I was overpaid originally by 3x what I was entitled to and there’s going to be 2 monthly salaries plus a bonus over the next assessment period UC will tell me I’m not entitled to anything long term or worse tell me I owe them money. Has anybody been in this situation before? 

Thank you if you have made it this far - I’m so worried about it all because I’m really relying on this to pay for some of my childcare (which is around £1000 per month)

Needhelpsos

Just to add to the above sorry my bonus is £1400 - it’s a once a year thing I get. If I add that on top of my annual salary on the benefits calculators it still tells me I’m entitled to around £600 per month. It’s more the fact I was so badly overpaid and getting a good wage (better than usual) the next time. Would it take about 4 months to get me back into a place where I actually start getting uc payments again?

calcotti

UC is always worked out monthly. You may have no UC this month but next month entitlement will be worked out on what you get in that month. If your income is particularly huge this month their may be some carry forward to next month under some complex ‘surplus earnings’ rules but these include a £2500 disregard so there may be no impact.

unfortunately claiming UC close to your pay day has potential to give rise to this problem. If you are normally paid monthly then when two payments will get lumped into one AP due to slight variations in timing you can ask a DWP to reallocate one of the payments to the ‘correct’ month.

You will never have to pay back UC already received as a result of earnings received after the previous APs.

Spoonie_Turtle

UC is calculated based on what you actually receive during an assessment period, so annual salary has nothing to do with it.
Also, don't panic!  From https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/new-to-universal-credit/universal-credit-and-work/
"If you earn more than £2,500 over the amount you can earn before you receive no Universal Credit payment, you are said to have surplus earnings. These surplus earnings will be taken into account in the next monthly assessment period. This may reduce the amount of Universal Credit you receive, or perhaps mean that you don’t get any Universal Credit payment that month."
So, calculate how much you can earn that would take your UC to nil.  Subtract that from how much you will actually get paid.  If that's over £2500, then the extra on top of £2500 extra will be what's accounted for next month.

The other option is to ask them to reallocate the 27th March payment to the following AP; as your payday is monthly they can do that so it's accounted for in your next AP, not this one.