Universal credit and wage deductions for rent

jemima72

I'm currently moving over to universal credit from tax credits, which is giving me anxiety, and have woken up in the middle of the night with a very specific query I'm hoping someone here may know the answer to!

My husband is a school caretaker and we live in a house on site for which rent is deducted from his wages. If universal credit is based on take home pay, will we be receiving more than we should as they will calculate it on the amount after rent has already been taken out? Or will their system figure this out? 

calcotti

UC should take into account the rent deduction as if the money was paid to your husband as part of his wage (so add the rent deduction back to his net earnings figure).

UC will depend on the information supplied by the employer as reported to HMRC and hence to UC.

All you can do is check the UC statement which will be uploaded on your UC journal a few days before payment to see if the calculation has been shown correctly. If there is a mistake you should report it immediately.

If any UC is overpaid it will, in due course, be have to be paid back so you'll just have to try and set it aside.

jemima72

calcotti said:

UC should take into account the rent deduction as if the money was paid to your husband as part of his wage (so add the rent deduction back to his net earnings figure).

UC will depend on the information supplied by the employer as reported to HMRC and hence to UC.

All you can do is check the UC statement which will be uploaded on your UC journal a few days before payment to see if the calculation has been shown correctly. If there is a mistake you should report it immediately.

If any UC is overpaid it will, in due course, be have to be paid back so you'll just have to try and set it aside.

Thank you. The rent is only £115 per month, I'm not great at maths but I've worked out that if UC deduct 55p for every £1 of wages, an overpayment of UC for wages being £115 less than they should would be around £63? 

calcotti

jemima72 said: Thank you. The rent is only £115 per month, I'm not great at maths but I've worked out that if UC deduct 55p for every £1 of wages, an overpayment of UC for wages being £115 less than they should would be around £63? 

Yes......