Applying for universal credit

k2020

I see people talking about the best time to apply depending on when you are payed can someone explain this to me on why this is , i  get payed the last day of everything month from work so what date would be the best to apply? 

peteuk

I believe its more to do with the following:

1) transition from Tax credits to UC and relating it to the TC payment.
2) frequency of pay eg if theres a period in which you are paid twice.

k2020

I’m on tax credits at the moment 

peteuk

k2020 said:

I’m on tax credits at the moment 

So you can wait until you get you migration letter and then work out when would be best for you, within that time frame.  
Remember your Tax credit stops the day you hit the submit button on your UC claim and from that point it’s five weeks till your first payment.

Spoonie_Turtle

It's usually advised to claim at least a few days either side of your pay date, in case you get paid early or it's reported late some months due to bank holidays.  If that happens and your assessment period ends on a date that means you have two sets of wages one month, you then have to get UC to manually allocate the wages to the correct assessment period.

So claiming at least 5 days either side of your payment date (but 10 days would be even safer) would reduce your chances of that problem happening.

Newcad

Also bear in mind that what date of the month you claim UC also sets what date of the month you will be paid UC.

Eg. If you claim on the 9th then your UC period will be from the 9th to the 8th each month, and you will be paid each month on the 15th, seven days after the 8th. (So the first one is about 5 weeks from when you claim).

That could suit some people to have it halfway between your work paydays.

k2020

So u might aswell claim around 20-24th if I want my pay date to be round end of month so it’s close to when I get paid from work and it should be enough days as it would more then 6/7 days before