Reporting earnings

NedS

larryharvey said:

Thanks. When you report your now have a job, it also asks you what your earnings are.

My question is should we put what her earnings will be if she has not been paid anything yet?

Yes, put in what she is expecting to be paid, but don't worry too much about what you put in when reporting the change as it's only an estimate and UC does not use it when calculating your UC payment, it only tells the system that it is expecting to see some earnings in the next month or two, depending when she is initially paid. So if you don't know what she may be paid, just put a best guess figure here, either for hours worked and hourly rate, or whatever. UC will wait to see what she actually receives in earnings, and that is the figure which is used to calculate the UC payment.

What is important is that at the end of each AP, the amount of earnings showing on your UC statement are correct - that should be the take home pay actually received in that AP. It does not matter if it's received as a payment in cash or by bank transfer. If earnings are missing (or wrong) because the employer has not reported them correctly to UC, then you MUST tell UC so they can correct your UC payment - but you will only know that after your statement has generated on the system at the end of the AP.

So if she is starting work and expects to receive her first wage at the end of March you would (1) report a change on or after the date she starts work giving the start date and expected pay, and (2) wait until the end of the AP in which she is paid (i.e, mid April) and check your statement to ensure the wages she received at the end of March are showing on the statement and are correct. As a result, she may receive a lower UC amount depending on how much she's earned.

I would expect a normal UC payment in mid March as at that point she hasn't yet received any wages so there is nothing to take into account, even though she's been working a few weeks.

TheShape

The advantage of inputting what you expect to earn (I believe it asks if you are to be paid hourly, weekly, annually etc) is that the system uses this information to assign you to a Work Group based on those earnings and therefore allocates the most appropriate Work Group.  It does re-assess the Work Group at the end of the Assessment Period (when it checks for wages reported) though which may mean that the work group then changes.  A Work Coach should then assess whether a Work Group override is required to keep a claimant in the 'correct' work group until they are paid.

Earnings are used to calculate payment in the Assessment Period in which they are received (other than some other limited circumstances).

TheShape

Soemthing to be aware of:

If the employer pays cash-in-hand and does not report the earnings through RTI, Universal Credit won't pick up those wages as there will no be an earnings feed.

If they are paying 'in cash' and the earnings are reported they will get picked-up.

(the above has already been mentioned but it is important enough to mention twice)

Probably also important to check for Tax liabilities, payment of NI, pension etc.