Universal credits

Clouty1

hi, just after any advice please, my son receives universal credit and due to his disability now gets LCWRA.

He recently did a one off job, literally a one off, involving his hobby of swimming. But he will be paid and worried how this affects his UC, we know about the £6000 limit and will be advising them once he gets the payment. But Is there a higher limit cutoff that might stop him getting UC at all ?
thank you :-)

poppy123456

He should have reported the changes when he started the job. Was he working for an employer or self employed? He needs to make sure he reports it as earnings.

The £6,000 limit refers to the lower capital/savings limit and not earnings. There's a deduction of £4.35/month for every £250 or part thereof over this amount. The higher savings limit is £16,000 and if you have more than that your entitlement to UC will end.

He will have the work allowance means he can receive a certain amount of earnings each month before deductions apply. If he claims for help with any rent then the WA is £404/month, if he doesn't then it's £673/month. For every £1 over that amount his UC will reduce by 55p.

Clouty1

hi, thank you for this info. It was a 6 day job, for an employer.

😊

poppy123456

Employers usually report earnings to HMRC and UC would check with those but if they didn't know he was working, they may not check. If he works again in the future he needs to make sure he reports the changes.

The only problem he may have now is that if he reports his earnings and his employer reports them and UC check, they will think he's received more earnings than he actually did.

Clouty1

Hi, he was working for an American based company, it was a one off filming job he just couldnt turn down :-) we will advise UC team as he’d need to pay tax on the earnings , we know he’s likely to loose his benefit now , which he accepts as he has over the amount allowed. Thanks so much for your help :-)

poppy123456

The earnings are not treated as capital/savings until the end of the following assessment period after he received the earnings.

Is his capital/savings morning than £16,000? If between £6,000 and £16,000 then there would be a deduction per month in his UC.

There's also something known as surplus earnings. If he earns over a certain amount then those earnings could be carried forward to other assessment periods. This is very complicated but you can see some information here. https://www.turn2us.org.uk/get-support/information-for-your-situation/surplus-earnings-rule