New evidence gathered by the charity reveals that some universal credit claimants are seeing their benefits reduced by £258 a month when their pay days clash with monthly assessment periods.
One in 20 cases coming in to the charity’s early warning system, which gathers case evidence from welfare rights advisers across the UK, indicates a problem with the monthly assessment system in UC.
Universal credit assessment periods run for a calendar month, starting from the date UC is awarded. At the end of each month, claimants’ circumstances and income are assessed, with payment made a week later in arrears.
However, CPAG has said, where a claimant’s monthly payday is on or close to the first day of their assessment period and they are paid a day or two early because payday would fall on a weekend or bank holiday, they are recorded as having had two paydays in one assessment period and none in the one after.
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