Universal Credit Payment

All_the_Daisies

Hi there,

I would really appreciate some advice on my situation please as I am confused about assessment periods and payments:

NB. My assessment period for Universal credit starts on the 26th of each month.

I get paid by my employer on the last working day of each month, so on the 30th November I was paid by my employer (my take home pay was quite a bit higher than usual as I received a bonus). I was then paid again on the 21st December as we were all paid early due to Christmas. So I have been paid twice in my assessment period and since my take home pay was also higher in November than normal, I have received nothing from Universal Credit for my payment which is due on the 4hh January.

My question is what happens next month? I’ll next get paid on the 31st January from my employer, so will I not have had a payment in my next assessment period in that case? How do they calculate for that assessment period?

Once I go back to having my normal wages once per assessment period thereafter, do things just go back to normal after that? Will the much higher total amount I received from my employer (higher wage with one off bonus plus second early payment in the same assessment period) have any impact on future UC payments?

Many, many thanks in advance for any help, it is very much appreciated.

calcotti

If you do nothing then your UC payment at the start of February will be for your maximum UC amount because they will have taken no earnings into account.

However you can ask UC to reallocate the payment you received on 21st December to your December-January period. They will then recalculate your January UC payment  to take in one earnings payment only and your February payment will take account of the December earnings. Put a note in your journal as a payments note.

Which arrangement will give you most UC over January and February combined depends on how your Uc payment is made up and how much your earnings are.

xxxxxxxx

calcotti said:

If you do nothing then your UC payment at the start of February will be for your maximum UC amount because they will have taken no earnings into account.

I think you confused the months. 

OP has had £0.00 for 26/11/21 - 25/12/21  

If OP does nothing s/he will get the full amount of UC for 26/12/21 - 25/1/22 with no deduction for income.  

From 26/1/22 OP will be back to normal. 

When you say OP can ask for the 21/12/21 income to be taken in to account for UC 26/12/2021 - 25/1/2021

Are you referring to a UC law which allows a claimant to have some degree of voluntary flexibility? If so, do you mind telling me what that law is?   

Or are you referring to the "legally due date". Income is only to be taken into account for the date it was legally due? The employer chooses to pay it early but it would still be considered legally due at the end of the month and therefore OP can tell UC that it was legally due on 31/12/21 and ask for a clerical re-calculation.  

calcotti

xxxxxxxx said:

calcotti said:

If you do nothing then your UC payment at the start of February will be for your maximum UC amount because they will have taken no earnings into account.

I think you confused the months. 

No I didn’t. As you say “If OP does nothing s/he will get the full amount of UC for 26/12/21 - 25/1/22 with no deduction for income.” That payment is received at the beginning of February which is why I said

calcotti said:

If you do nothing then your UC payment at the start of February will be for your maximum UC amount because they will have taken no earnings into account.

xxxxxxxx said:

When you say OP can ask for the 21/12/21 income to be taken in to account for UC 26/12/2021 - 25/1/2021....do you mind telling me what that law is?   

I am referring to Universal Regulations 2013 regulation 61(6) as introduced by
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1138/made
As explained here
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1138/pdfs/uksiem_20201138_en.pdf

The Universal Credit (Earned Income) Amendment Regulations 2020 make the following amendments to reallocate a calendar monthly payment of earnings reported via the Real Time Information (RTI) service to a different Universal Credit assessment period where it is necessary to maintain a regular payment cycle. This means that only one set of earnings will be taken into account in each assessment period for people who are paid calendar monthly rather than two which can sometimes happen currently. This reallocation will smooth entitlement to Universal Credit and help maintain a regular payment cycle.

and
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/935532/adm27-20.pdf

7. Where a person is engaged in an employment where they are paid on a regular monthly basis and more than one payment in relation to that employment is reported in the same assessment period, the Secretary of State may, for the purposes of maintaining a regular pattern, determine that one of those payments is to be treated as employed earnings in respect of a different assessment period.

The SoS has a discretionary power. If claimant requests reallocation that power should be exercised but claimant is not obliged to request it and if they don’t DWP probably won’t (although they could).

The legislation was introduced following a court case which the DWP lost.
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/johnson-and-others-judgment-final.pdf

Alice_Holt

xxxxxxxx said:

calcotti said:

If you do nothing then your UC payment at the start of February will be for your maximum UC amount because they will have taken no earnings into account.

I think you confused the months..... 


Are you referring to a UC law which allows a claimant to have some degree of voluntary flexibility? If so, do you mind telling me what that law is?   

    This may also help you ....

     https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/legal-test-cases/universal-credit-assessment-period-inflexibility

mummystudent

Have you been able to resolve anything. I am in tears after spending a day being spoken to like something someone trod in. My employer told me on the 15th December that I would be paid early and so I put a note on my journal saying I would have two payments in one assessment period and my case manager told me that it should be picked up by the computer but if it wasn't it would easily be resolved manually. So I called them this morning when, as predicted, my UC payment was zero. At 10am I called UC and, after being passed around I was eventually told to call HMRC. HMRC told me to call UC. So I called HMRC again and picked a different option, this young gentleman was the only polite and helpful person of the day. He tried so hard to find me someone, the right someone to talk to. By 1.30pm HMRC decided that it was my employer who I needed to speak to as they had not registered my pay on the 17th December as being allocated to later in the month and the they were the ones who could rectify this. My employer however stated that they couldn't do anything now that the payroll had been processed and that I should call HMRC. Who... you've guessed it, told me to called Universal Credit and ask to speak to a manager. 

At 4pm I called Universal Credit, I explained the situation only to be told there was nothing they could do, that my case manager would have to deal with it when they are in next week. When I asked what I was supposed to do for money I was told I shouldn't have waited until 4pm to call them. Then I was told if I'd have known there was likely to be an issue with an early payment from my employer why didn't I let them know. I asked her if she'd not heard me when I'd told her that I called at 10am, if she could not see on the system that I had put a note on my journal on the 15th. Then she warned me about my attitude! When I asked them what I was supposed to do she asked me if I'd heard of food banks. I asked to speak to a manager and was told that they were all busy right now. I said I'd hold. They said there was no point as no one could do anything and she needed to hang up to take other calls. 

Do you think they get bonus' for making people feel like they are something someone trod in? 

tomtom256

But you have received two lots of wages, have you not still got that?

Alternatively, nip into your local jobcentre tomorrow if you are able to and speak with a human, who should be able to raise an RTI dispute for you, if it meets the criteria.

The national call centre can only give limited support and work pretty much from a script, as they are outsourced.

calcotti

mummystudent said:

..I called UC and, after being passed around I was eventually told to call HMRC....

It has nothing to do with HMRC.
Next time you message or speak to them refer them to ADM memo 27/20
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/935532/adm27-20.pdf
UC just need to use their discretionary power to reallocate the payment (if that's what you want them to do).

All_the_Daisies

Hi mummystudent,

Sorry to hear you're having a similar problem. I was lucky enough to be paid a bonus back in November and so put my approx UC monthly payment amount aside for this happening and so I will wait for my payments to resume back in Feb. I should get a higher amount of UC as I won't have a registered wage in my assessment period if I've understood the rules and advice correctly.

Appreciate that you haven't been able to do this so I'm really sorry for the extra worry for you. I hope you are able to get this sorted as per the advice given above. 

xxxxxxxx

calcotti said:

mummystudent said:

..I called UC and, after being passed around I was eventually told to call HMRC....

It has nothing to do with HMRC.
Next time you message or speak to them refer them to ADM memo 27/20
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/935532/adm27-20.pdf
UC just need to use their discretionary power to reallocate the payment (if that's what you want them to do).

It may be nothing to do with HMRC, and although there is now a provision in law for reallocation of a months wages (more about this below) for UC Assessment Period purposes.  Talking to HMRC can help under another law.  As the HMRC has told the client the Payroll submitted the earnings to HMRC without inputting that the earnings were legally due at the end of the month.  HMRC correctly advised the claimant that this could be corrected by her payroll.   HMRC  of course would not know of the reallocation provision provided by UC law.  HMRC did recognise a problem with the reported earnings. 

It would seem to me that the appeal you refer to above was wholly unnecessary.  Whilst it does no harm to have another provision in law to remedy the problem. There was already in place the lawful treatment of income.  In every example in the ADM Memo 27/20   - prior to this amendment being made- DWP were simply acting unlawfully by not accounting for the income that was paid early or late by the employer as being due on its due date.   This was maybe hampered in some cases by payroll not reporting to HMRC when they were legally due. But as  HMRC advised our claimant above these reporting errors could have been corrected by the payroll or a letter from the employer would have sufficed.
 
In this case, it is still only to be actioned by the Case Manager. the person on the phone cannot issue the payment.  I feel there should be some provision for an escalated call back from another manager to get the payment authorised by a different Case Manager if the claimant's Case manager is not available at this time.

If mummystudent feels the call was not handled very well, despite if mummystudent lost her temper a bit out of frustration, the call handler should have de-escalated rather than escalated the frustration.  Particularly that the call handler should have read the claimant's journal and seen that the claimant had reported this on the 15th.  mummystudent should request a call recording  and make an official complaint to the DWP about the lack of training -or the need for more training- of its telephone agents.


I also note from the law amendment that this will not help those paid 4 weekly who suffer the same problem, the law only applies to payments on a monthly basis.  Which is why it was wholly unnecessary to appeal.  I am surprised the tribunal did not pick up on the existing laws of income.   

calcotti

xxxxxxxx said: I also note from the law amendment that this will not help those paid 4 weekly who suffer the same problem

Although those paid 4 weekly do have a cashflow issue it isn't, in my opinion, the same problem. Those paid four weekly will always have at least one earnings payment per month and therefore do not suffer loss of benefit income that those paid monthly can experience if two earnings payments fall into one month. 

The major issue for 4 weekly paid claimants is possible application of benefit cap even though they might escape it if paid monthly.

Courts found the treatment of monthly earnings when payment date varies slightly to be irrational.

For four weekly payments the High Court also found treatment to be irrational but this was overturned by the Court of Appeal who decided it was not irrational for the SoS not to amend the treatment of 4 weekly earnings because of the difficulty of doing so. Leave to appeal to the Supreme Court has been sought.
https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/legal-test-cases/current-test-cases/benefit-cap-and-those-paid-4-weekly
https://askcpag.org.uk/content/207484/uc-escaping-the-benefit-cap-and-pay-cycles