How does Marriage Allowance impact Universal Credit? 17 March at 9:20AM edited 17 March at 9:35AM in Benefits & tax credits 28 replies 604 views

sarahlply

Icequeen1 said:

sarahlply said:

poppy12345 said:

sarahlply said:

we are still waiting to see if the refund cheque money will also need to be paid back to uc/ off set in some way,

If you were employed or self employed in the year which the refund refers to then it's classed as income and will reduce your UC.

I agree but our uc team are saying they don’t know! Complete farse and there’s nothing online on their systems to confirm any of this or what should happen, same on the HMRC pages either, it’s been referred to a special team now apparently to check what should happen!

I'm not sure what UC team you are referring to but the DWP's own guidance (which refers to the legislation) is here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1087474/admh3.pdf Page 10/11 confirms what I said in my earlier post. Where a refund is given by amending a tax code, you don't need to notify DWP (unless your employer doesn't use the RTI system) as they will get your net pay data directly from HMRC. Where the refund relates to a year in which you were employed or self-employed then you have to declare it and it is counted as income. 

The UC staff can access this staff guidance. You can give them the link. 

Just wanted to say thank you, this might clear things up now as it shows the HMRC cheques should be treated the same as the refund via my husbands tax code/wages which my claim handler is saying isn’t correct so shows my concerns are correct. So will need to repay the money and probably owe council tax money now too.
I spent hours searching for this under marriage allowances and on HMRC tax pages so really appreciate you passing this on.
thank you again.
best wishes
sarah

Dazed_and_C0nfused

sarahlply said:

Icequeen1 said:

sarahlply said:

poppy12345 said:

sarahlply said:

we are still waiting to see if the refund cheque money will also need to be paid back to uc/ off set in some way,

If you were employed or self employed in the year which the refund refers to then it's classed as income and will reduce your UC.

I agree but our uc team are saying they don’t know! Complete farse and there’s nothing online on their systems to confirm any of this or what should happen, same on the HMRC pages either, it’s been referred to a special team now apparently to check what should happen!

I'm not sure what UC team you are referring to but the DWP's own guidance (which refers to the legislation) is here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1087474/admh3.pdf Page 10/11 confirms what I said in my earlier post. Where a refund is given by amending a tax code, you don't need to notify DWP (unless your employer doesn't use the RTI system) as they will get your net pay data directly from HMRC. Where the refund relates to a year in which you were employed or self-employed then you have to declare it and it is counted as income. 

The UC staff can access this staff guidance. You can give them the link. 

Just wanted to say thank you, this might clear things up now as it shows the HMRC cheques should be treated the same as the refund via my husbands tax code/wages which my claim handler is saying isn’t correct so shows my concerns are correct. So will need to repay the money and probably owe council tax money now too.
I spent hours searching for this under marriage allowances and on HMRC tax pages so really appreciate you passing this on.
thank you again.
best wishes
sarah

This is really nothing whatsoever to do with Marriage Allowance.

It's just a tax refund which needs to be declared to DWP.  The reason for it could be hundreds of different things.

sarahlply

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

sarahlply said:

Icequeen1 said:

sarahlply said:

poppy12345 said:

sarahlply said:

we are still waiting to see if the refund cheque money will also need to be paid back to uc/ off set in some way,

If you were employed or self employed in the year which the refund refers to then it's classed as income and will reduce your UC.

I agree but our uc team are saying they don’t know! Complete farse and there’s nothing online on their systems to confirm any of this or what should happen, same on the HMRC pages either, it’s been referred to a special team now apparently to check what should happen!

I'm not sure what UC team you are referring to but the DWP's own guidance (which refers to the legislation) is here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1087474/admh3.pdf Page 10/11 confirms what I said in my earlier post. Where a refund is given by amending a tax code, you don't need to notify DWP (unless your employer doesn't use the RTI system) as they will get your net pay data directly from HMRC. Where the refund relates to a year in which you were employed or self-employed then you have to declare it and it is counted as income. 

The UC staff can access this staff guidance. You can give them the link. 

Just wanted to say thank you, this might clear things up now as it shows the HMRC cheques should be treated the same as the refund via my husbands tax code/wages which my claim handler is saying isn’t correct so shows my concerns are correct. So will need to repay the money and probably owe council tax money now too.
I spent hours searching for this under marriage allowances and on HMRC tax pages so really appreciate you passing this on.
thank you again.
best wishes
sarah

This is really nothing whatsoever to do with Marriage Allowance.

It's just a tax refund which needs to be declared to DWP.  The reason for it could be hundreds of different things.

I appreciate what your saying and I did declare it but the refund was given to my husband based on action I took from seeing Martin give advice on marriage allowance , I followed the instructions on the HMRC website page for marriage allowance and gave my husband my allowance as I am now medically unfit to return to work, there was nothing there /on the page to say it affected uc and it’s taken since 20th feb to find info on it,  when uc deducted the money on 20th feb against the refund my husband got in his wages I immediately asked why haven’t you taken money for the cheque refund given for previous years, they told me they didn’t know anything about it and I didn’t need to do anything as it was related to the payment in my husbands wages, which is why I posted here a couple of weeks ago as I didn’t trust the reply and as it shows I was right not to.
have them the info and asked for a payment plan which I need to then share with council tax as they will also need repaying.
it’s sickening as the HMRC married allowance pages don’t refer to uc needing to be told so now we are regretting doing anything and it’s caused a huge amount of stress while I am undergoing invasive medical tests and awaiting a treatment plan.

sarahlply

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

sarahlply said:

Icequeen1 said:

sarahlply said:

poppy12345 said:

sarahlply said:

we are still waiting to see if the refund cheque money will also need to be paid back to uc/ off set in some way,

If you were employed or self employed in the year which the refund refers to then it's classed as income and will reduce your UC.

I agree but our uc team are saying they don’t know! Complete farse and there’s nothing online on their systems to confirm any of this or what should happen, same on the HMRC pages either, it’s been referred to a special team now apparently to check what should happen!

I'm not sure what UC team you are referring to but the DWP's own guidance (which refers to the legislation) is here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1087474/admh3.pdf Page 10/11 confirms what I said in my earlier post. Where a refund is given by amending a tax code, you don't need to notify DWP (unless your employer doesn't use the RTI system) as they will get your net pay data directly from HMRC. Where the refund relates to a year in which you were employed or self-employed then you have to declare it and it is counted as income. 

The UC staff can access this staff guidance. You can give them the link. 

Just wanted to say thank you, this might clear things up now as it shows the HMRC cheques should be treated the same as the refund via my husbands tax code/wages which my claim handler is saying isn’t correct so shows my concerns are correct. So will need to repay the money and probably owe council tax money now too.
I spent hours searching for this under marriage allowances and on HMRC tax pages so really appreciate you passing this on.
thank you again.
best wishes
sarah

This is really nothing whatsoever to do with Marriage Allowance.

It's just a tax refund which needs to be declared to DWP.  The reason for it could be hundreds of different things.

Link I followed https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

sheramber

In your case the tax rebate was because of a claim for Marriage transfer Allowance but  any tax rebate is classed as income.

it could be a refund because of a claim for the  allowance for washing uniform at home, or an allowance for working from home, or any other claim for a tax allowance. 

It is not just a tax rebate for the Marriage Transfer Allowance claim that affects UC.

sarahlply

sheramber said:

In your case the tax rebate was because of a claim for Marriage transfer Allowance but  any tax rebate is classed as income.

it could be a refund because of a claim for the  allowance for washing uniform at home, or an allowance for working from home, or any other claim for a tax allowance. 

It is not just a tax rebate for the Marriage Transfer Allowance claim that affects UC.

I appreciate that now but no website explains that at any point in the process and neither do the letters received from HMRC either with the refund cheque or online letters my husband downloaded re his tax code which is why it is such a shock and needs highlighting to anyone considering the change/transfer including the team supporting Martin as there’s nothing on his page either.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

sarahlply said:

sheramber said:

In your case the tax rebate was because of a claim for Marriage transfer Allowance but  any tax rebate is classed as income.

it could be a refund because of a claim for the  allowance for washing uniform at home, or an allowance for working from home, or any other claim for a tax allowance. 

It is not just a tax rebate for the Marriage Transfer Allowance claim that affects UC.

I appreciate that now but no website explains that at any point in the process and neither do the letters received from HMRC either with the refund cheque or online letters my husband downloaded re his tax code which is why it is such a shock and needs highlighting to anyone considering the change/transfer including the team supporting Martin as there’s nothing on his page either.

Maybe it's changed but the notes which accompany the P800 refund calculation used to explain that tax refunds needed to be notified to DWP.

sarahlply

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

sarahlply said:

sheramber said:

In your case the tax rebate was because of a claim for Marriage transfer Allowance but  any tax rebate is classed as income.

it could be a refund because of a claim for the  allowance for washing uniform at home, or an allowance for working from home, or any other claim for a tax allowance. 

It is not just a tax rebate for the Marriage Transfer Allowance claim that affects UC.

I appreciate that now but no website explains that at any point in the process and neither do the letters received from HMRC either with the refund cheque or online letters my husband downloaded re his tax code which is why it is such a shock and needs highlighting to anyone considering the change/transfer including the team supporting Martin as there’s nothing on his page either.

Maybe it's changed but the notes which accompany the P800 refund calculation used to explain that tax refunds needed to be notified to DWP.

There wasn’t any notes in the envelope and the online letters were very basic, so much so husband had to ask if he was getting a refund or not! Will ask him to log in when he’s home next as on shift next couple of days but nothing that he’s given me mentions anything to do with uc or dwp.