Turns out I haven’t been awarded Universal Credit after all the phone calls and emails I’ve made. Help to Claim have been brilliant, it’s just HMRC themselves causing hold-ups, seemingly by not understanding their own system.
As mentioned in previous posts, my Working Tax Credits were stopped and I was asked to reapply for Universal Credit. I thought I wouldn’t be eligible due to being over the savings threshold, but it seems this rule is disregarded due to Transitional Protection – I’ve been asked to move from WTC to UC.
HMRC, of course, keep forgetting this, hence no UC payment. This is ironic considering what makes me eligible for all of this is… short term memory difficulties.
All this has been explained by a lady at Help to Claim, a government advice line. Help to Claim Lady (HTCL) has been really helpful in explaining the situation and speaking on my behalf. There’s been an issue with the calculation. We called HMRC and asked for an explanation, and disagreed with the decision. At this point, The HMRC Worker (HMRCW) asked HTCL to leave the call, which I found very suspicious. The only personal info that was discussed on that call is what HTCL already knew anyway. There was no reason to cut her out. She wasn’t able to rejoin.
HMRCW told me that my earnings were too high, which is absurd considering, after tax, I just about make 4 figures from my wage. Surely there must be people on UC who make more from their wage than I do? Voluntary support website Housing Systems suggests so. When I first tried to claim WTC in 2008, I was denied because I didn’t work enough hours – the same hours I’m on now (albeit with no Disability Living Allowance).
It makes no sense.
I sent HTCL an email updating her – she suggested I should get a payment on Friday, yesterday. Guess what…? I haven’t. We’re trying to book another meeting in, but I was in work Friday, then it was the weekend, so I’ll respond to her email tomorrow night, just in the unlikely instance that in the meantime something else I need to tell her crops up.
What a ballache. Thanks, Tory voters!
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