Improvements to the Universal Credit system
27 August 2021
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has updated its processes so that claimants receive more consistent benefit payments, particularly in scenarios where their employer pays them early due to a bank holiday.
The system will now automatically identify those claimants who have received a second monthly salary payment in one benefit assessment period.
DWP staff will now have the ability to move the second payment across to the following assessment period in the system, which will mean that the claimant’s benefits don’t differ from one month to the next because the system misinterprets that the claimant has received higher wages in one month.
CIPP comment The CIPP welcomes this change, as the impact that payroll submissions, such as the Full Payment Submission (FPS) have on Universal Credit has been a significant issue for some time. Payroll departments should continue to ensure that they record correct pay dates on an FPS – the contractual pay date – even when, for example, that pay date falls on a non-banking day, so actual payment has to be made earlier.
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