Universal Credit Contributions to workplace pensions

Doshsaver23

My 38 year old daughter works full time in retail and gets universal credit. However, her workplace pension is not building up very quickly. If she contributed more to her pension, would universal credit make up the difference in her pay?

NedS

As her net pay would be reduced due to contributing more into a pension, her UC would increase, but not necessarily by the same amount due to the earnings taper.

You can use a benefits calculator such as entitledto to calculate exactly how much UC she should receive for any given amount of take home (net) pay.

Grumpy_chap

Doshsaver23 said:

My 38 year old daughter works full time in retail and gets universal credit. However, her workplace pension is not building up very quickly. If she contributed more to her pension, would universal credit make up the difference in her pay?

The way that pension contribution are understood for UC claimants is not simple.
There have been recent threads on the matter that show some of the challenges in the process.  The following seems to be possibly the most comprehensive thread on the subject:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6001734/universal-credit-and-private-pension-contributions/p1

Search will provide several further threads, for example:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81536540

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81602354

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6624048/universal-credit-and-earned-income-pension-contribution-deduction-from-uc/p1

Hopefully, reading through the above will assist the OP / OP's daughter.

FIREDreamer

An £80 contribution will add £100 to ger pension.

Assuming a basic rate taxpayer.

Her UC will increase by £80 x 0.55 = £44.00 

So £100 into her pension costs her just £36

Best to increase workplace pension contributions than use another and have hassle with universal ctedit recognising and allowing for those contributions!