Universal credit payment went from £98 to £207 overnight, why?

ColonelCabbage

I asked them in my universal credit journal but getting no answer. Some 6.7% increase is expected (https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/dwp-confirms-millions-higher-universal-29129551) but in my case it's over 200% increase.

I had zero income for several months now (I'm in software development, there's absolutely no hiring except for seniors at the moment). Not sure whether that's relevant.

Any idea as to what's happening? Also should I except this higher amount each month from now on?

tacpot12

You should be able to see the UC calculation in your account which should at least tell you which element within Universal Credit has increased. No-one can say whether you should expect this higher payment every month until you can get to the bottom of why it has increased in this assessment period.  

Yamor

My guess is that this isn't the uprating, as you wouldn't have got that yet. Only payments from 14th May onwards will have the uprating applied.

What day of the month do you get paid UC?

Are you renting? If yes, is it a private rental, or social housing, and did the rent increase recently?

SimonFF

Check if you have been awarded LCWRA by mistake.

Newcad

Why were you only getting £98?

ie. Check if a deduction that was being made has now stopped.

It sounds that you recently lost some income and of course that can affect UC payments.

Muttleythefrog

Surely your statement(s) explain.... or at least help explain.... here we're just looking at a black box.. could be anything from error to backdated amounts included to new elements included to changed housing costs to fraud and probably other things not thought about. If the statements aren't giving explanation to you then perhaps screenshot or write the pertinent calculations here omitting any personal identifying information 

ColonelCabbage

Muttleythefrog said:

Surely your statement(s) explain.... or at least help explain.... here we're just looking at a black box.. could be anything from error to backdated amounts included to new elements included to changed housing costs to fraud and probably other things not thought about. If the statements aren't giving explanation to you then perhaps screenshot or write the pertinent calculations here omitting any personal indentifying information 

Gosh you're right, I didn't see there was a payment section with calculation details in it. The relevant change seems to be located in "Housing".

I'll show a screenshot of the breakdown for the previous payment of £97, and below that, a screenshot for the last payment of £207.

Previous payment:

New payment:

There is more housing and less deductions. But why?

ColonelCabbage

Yamor said:

My guess is that this isn't the uprating, as you wouldn't have got that yet. Only payments from 14th May onwards will have the uprating applied.

What day of the month do you get paid UC?

Are you renting? If yes, is it a private rental, or social housing, and did the rent increase recently?

Private renting, no rent change. No income change either.

devon_guy

Your local housing allowance has increased from £524 to 695 for a start so that's given you an extra £170 a month

Newcad

devon_guy said:

Your local housing allowance has increased from £524 to 695 for a start so that's given you an extra £170 a month

But then you also had a £60 bigger deduction for earnings this month, so bringing the total payable this month down to the £207.

ie. £98 last month + £170 for extra LHA this month - £60 because you had higher wages this month = £208
That's close enough to £207 because we've used whole £'s and haven't calculated in the pence.

Yamor

This is really interesting, and seems to show that UC have applied the LHA increase (in your case, the Birmingham 1-bed rate) earlier than they were supposed to.
They are only supposed to apply it to APs beginning on or after 8th April, but from your screenshot it seems like they've applied the new rates from APs beginning on or after 1st April.

The other difference between the two APs is that the Minimum Income Floor ("MIF") has increased due to the increase in NMW rates as of 1st April.

For your next AP, assuming no further changes to your circumstances, you can expect to get £212.48. The change will be due to an increase to your standard allowance, which is then mostly cancelled out by a further increase to your MIF (to £1,556.30).

The last point I would make is that it is worth considering whether you are still "gainfully self-employed".
The MIF only applies to those gainfully self-employed. In your case it is apparent that there has been no income or expenses for a few months. Furthermore, you also have some employed earnings. Both of these could be indicators that you are no longer gainfully self-employed.