Universal Credit & Christmas

25/11/2019

Some important information…

If you are claiming universal credit you know your payments only change if you earn more than the previous month.

At Christmas time it can be an issue if your employer pays you early and therefore you would get 2 payments within your “monthly” Universal Credit pay dates. This would mean that you would not get a payment the following month.  See below the DWP link on how Universal Credit and pay works.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-payments-payment-cycles

According to guidance for employers issued in the ‘Employer Bulletin October issue 80’ employers should send their submissions on the “normal” pay date so not to cause an issue for your Universal Credit claim.  Check with your employer that they know this.

Quote from the Employer Bulletin October 2019:

Guidance for employers on reporting PAYE information in real time when payments are made early at Christmas. In December 2018, we wrote to employers to advise a temporary easement on reporting PAYE information in real time, as we know some employers pay their employees earlier than usual over the Christmas period. This can be for a number of reasons, for example during the Christmas period the business may close, meaning workers need to be paid earlier than normal. Following feedback from employers and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) we have received approval to make this easement permanent. HMRC’s employer guidance will be updated shortly. If you do pay early over the Christmas period, please report your normal (or contractual) payday as the payment date on your Full Payment Submission (FPS) and ensure that the FPS is submitted on or before this date. For example: if you pay on Friday 20 December 2019 but the normal/contractual payment date is Tuesday 31 December 2019, please report the payment date on the FPS as 31 December and ensure the submission is sent on or before 31 December. Doing this will help to protect your employees’ eligibility for Universal Credit, as reporting the payday as the payment date may affect current and future entitlements. The overriding PAYE reporting obligation for employers is unaffected by this announcement and remains that you must report payments on or before the date the employee is paid, i.e. payday