Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that claimants of universal credit are not subject to deductions as a result of being paid twice in one assessment period.

Universal Credit payments reflect, as closely as possible, the actual circumstances of a household during each monthly assessment period. This includes any earnings reported by a claimant’s employer during that assessment period, regardless of at what point in the assessment period these were paid. These monthly assessment periods aim to mirror the way the majority of employees are paid and allow for the Universal Credit award to be adjusted each month.

No one will receive a lower award. To ensure their entitlements remain unchanged they should follow the following processes:

DWP has worked with HMRC and employers to ensure that they are aware of the actions they need to take to reflect an employee’s earnings. This will ease the reporting burden on claimants so that the amount they receive is not reduced.

Where this hasn’t happened a claimant should reapply within 7 days to ensure no reduction in what they receive. Re-application requires claimants to update existing information. This can be done by confirming a reclaim in their online account, or by calling our Freephone number.

However, some claimants are paid in differing patterns, including four-weekly, fortnightly or on a variable day every month. This may mean that for some months these claimants receive two or more sets of earnings during one assessment period. This may reduce the Universal Credit award that the claimant receives.