Universal credit

Chicken_Dippers49

Just gone on to our universal credit award for this month to find its 0. Only one pay day in the award period but husband take home pay is double what it normally is. Any ideas?

marcia_

Chicken_Dippers49 said:

Just gone on to our universal credit award for this month to find its 0. Only one pay day in the award period but husband take home pay is double what it normally is. Any ideas?

 Your husband received double what he usually does or UC have claimed he received double when he has not? 

Chicken_Dippers49

UC have said his take home pay was double his normal. His wages were no different. This is the first payment since our daughter turned 18 and finished full time education. We didn't realise that once that happens all of your wages are taken into account instead of the first £673 not being used to calculate it.

Newcad

The pay being reported as twice usual sounds like an RTI issue.

Does your partner get paid on the same date each month or can it vary?
Are the wages paid 4-weekly perhaps?

It seems that for some reason 2-months wages have been reported in the same UC period.
It can happen for various reasons, eg: (This is not a full list, there are other reasons why it might happen.

• With 4-weekly wages there will be one UC month each year that includes 2 lots of 4-weeks wages.
  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-earnings#if-youre-paid-weekly-every-2-weeks-or-every-4-weeks
• With monthly wages if the employer is late or early reporting monthly wages to HMRC then 2-can end up in the same UC AP. (That can be corrected and one of them allocated to the month where it should be).
  
• If your paydate changes it can also happen.
• Or there may just be an RTI error.

Put a note on your journal under 'Payments' asking why 2-lots of wages have been included this month.

The loss of the £673 'Work Allowance because of your daughter no longer being classed as a child is a seperate matter, but of course that is going to mean a higher deduction for wages from now on, even when only one wage is reported.

nannytone_2

It could be that you have lost the work allowance. was your 18-year-old the only child on the claim?

Chicken_Dippers49

Yes she was. 

TheShape

OP, does your assessment period end close to the end of the month and your husband get paid on the last day or last working day of the month?  That can lead to two payments of wages slipping into one assessment period.

Newcad

Indeed, that is one I missed on that list above.

It can still be queried and corrrected if that is what has happened, again you need a note on the journal.

Write a message in your journal explaining the dates you have been paid and that you are monthly paid so only one wage should be counted in each AP.
Your case manager should send your information to the RTI team who can remove one set of your wages and use them in a different assessment period.

Of course if that happens once then it's probably going to happen again sometime in a future month, so it's something that you'll want to keep an eye out for each month.

Ellesway

This has happened to us this month - despite being paid on 26th September as normal, my husband's employer filed his wages late (on 5th October), so when the end of October rolled around and he was paid on 25th, it appeared that he was paid twice. We raised it with them immediately on 31st October but it was passed to an 'earnings dispute team' and have been told there is no timescale on this. Does anyone know how long this usually takes and whether they can raise a payment mid-month (for example) once it's sorted out? Or are they likely to make 2x payments next month?
We have missed out on the £540 we rely on due to their strange inflexibility surrounding the assessment period rules...this system is appalling!

poppy12345

As you're no longer entitled to the work allowance, is there still entitlement to UC? Have you used a benefits calculator to check? If not then I'd advise you to do that because there could be no entitlement due to your partners earnings.

If it's just the standard allowance you're claiming and no other elements your maximum entitlement to UC will only be £617.60/month. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/benefits-calculator/ If earnings are more than about £1,120/month there would be no entitlement to UC.