Am I correct in thinking I qualify for COL payment U.C. 23 November 2022 at 12:00AM in Benefits & tax credits 14 replies 505 views

Leeannl2003

Hi I hope someone can clarify this for me, I was under the impression that I qualified for the 2nd Cost of Living Payment if my Universal Credit met the criteria during any days of the assessment period of 26/08/2022 to 25/09/2022. During this assessment period I received my Universal  Credits between 11/08/2022 to 10/09/2022. There is roughly a two week difference between the start of my Universal Credit assessment period and the DWP qualifying criteria assessment period dates, but I still have a two week window were I fall into their given qualifying dates, as I did with the 1st COL payment that I received without any issues from U.C, when I queried this on journal, I asked if I was to wait till after the 23rd of November or if further delays expected, my work coach replied that we don't qualify as we didn't have a payment on the qualifying assessment date set out as mine was 11/08/22 to 10/09/22. I stated that by that reasoning most people wouldn't qualify in that case, as it would be highly unlikely that the dates would match exactly for most people.
Am I right in thinking that its supposed to be if you get Universal Credits on any of the qualifying days between 26th August 2022 to 25th September 2022.
Thank you in advance for the help, its much appreciated indeed xxx   

calcotti

Leeannl2003 said:

Am I right in thinking that its supposed to be if you get Universal Credits on any of the qualifying days between 26th August 2022 to 25th September 2022.

You qualify if your assessment period ends within those dates.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment?mc_cid=d8310461d2&mc_eid=407191570c#low-income-benefits-and-tax-credits

You will be eligible for the second Cost of Living Payment of £324 if you were entitled to a payment (or later found to be entitled to a payment) of Universal Credit for an assessment period that ended in the period 26 August 2022 to 25 September 2022.

Payment will be Between 8 and 23 November 2022 for most people.

If you qualify but don’t receive there should soon be a facility to a report a missing payment.

poppy12345

The criteria for the £324 is you must have received or been entitled to a payment of UC for an assessment period that ended between 26th Aug and 25th Sept.

If your assessment periods are 11th to 10th of each month and you received a payment for your assessment period 11th August to 10th September then you'll be entitled to the payment.

Spoonie_Turtle

You're right, I think (finding the bold difficult to read), not quite because of 'any qualifying days' but simply having the end of an assessment period falling within the qualifying dates and having a payment for that period.

You'll be able to report it missing soon if it doesn't turn up, here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment#report-a-missing-cost-of-living-payment (wait until it says you can report the £324 missing)

poppy12345

Spoonie_Turtle said:

(finding the bold difficult to read),

Same here.

Leeannl2003

Hi Calcotti,
Thanks for clarifying that, I thought it might have been the case but wasn't 100% sure so didn't want to start missing payment request at end of week if I was mistaken. x  

Leeannl2003

sorry about the bold Spoonie_Turtle my eyesight's not good its on automatically, hope that's better lol, might not have great spelling though as cant see it very well lol x

Spoonie_Turtle

Leeannl2003 said:

sorry about the bold Spoonie_Turtle my eyesight's not good its on automatically, hope that's better lol, might not have great spelling though as cant see it very well lol x

Ah not to worry, we all have different needs - and I took so long I cross-posted with two others anyway

Robbie64

I think the lesson here as well is not to believe everything the Work Coach says - some of them seem to make things up on the spot instead of just saying they don't know the answer.

Leeannl2003

I put in cost of living missing payment and they said im still not entitled to payment as its the end date of my universal credit that counts not the end date of the cost of living criteria dates, so on the face of it technically i would be elig3for it for the first two weeks but not the 2nd two weeks so technically in there book im not eli3at all, really dont know were to go now with this, if its universal credit its your payment end date has to be at certain time but if its tax credits its states that if your payment falls on any days within the eligibility criteria your entitled to payment. So why is there one rule for universal credit and one rule for tax credit, oh yeah thats right more people are on universal credit. So by using same system with next COL payment i wont be elig3either unless it fall on exact payment date as mine which is highly unlikely im sure this must be an issue for thousands of people 

poppy12345

For UC you must have received a payment or been entitled to a payment for an assessment period that ended between 26th August and 25th September.

In a previous comment you said your assessment periods are 11th to 10 of each month. Therefore if you received a payment or was entitled to a payment of UC for the assessment period 11th August to 10th September you were entitled to the £324. If you didn't then you weren't entitled.

So the question is did you receive a payment for that assessment period?

I don't know why you're comparing the criteria for tax credits because that's completely different to UC.