Cost of living crisis: some low-paid workers miss out on £326 help

Some low-paid workers on universal credit have missed out on the government’s first cost of living payment because of payroll quirks that removed their benefit entitlement during the key window set by the government.

“I was going to use it to load up my gas meter, get ahead on my electricity and fill up the freezer,” said David Evans, a 55-year-old IT apprentice, of his plans for the £326 payment that in recent weeks has been landing in the bank accounts of struggling Britons.

Evans is paid weekly but universal credit is calculated on a monthly basis, so in four months of the year, when his claim is based on five rather than four weeks’ pay, he does not receive any money. “I receive about £140 in the months I am entitled to a payment,” he said.

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To receive the cost of living payment (a second one worth £324 will paid in the autumn), you had to be eligible for a universal credit payment in an assessment period that ended between 26 April and 25 May. The government website warns that you won’t receive the giveaway if your earnings reduce the benefit to £0 in this key window.

This happened to Evans as the assessment period coincided with a month when his claim was based on five weeks’ pay, so fell to zero. “Although the number of people paid weekly is not a high percentage of the UK labour force, they are the lowest-paid and will be claiming benefits to increase their income,” he said. “A decent number of those people, and some of those paid four-weekly, will have been at risk of not getting this money.”

A supermarket worker, who declined to be named, also got in touch to say she had been affected. She suggests that many of her peers would have been, too. “I work at a large supermarket and am paid every four weeks,” she said. “I am also on universal credit and, by a chance of the calendar, had two paydays in April. This meant I got nothing that month. I was still on universal credit, I just got £0.”

She adds: “My assessment period ran from 1 to 30 April, so I will not get the payment just because I am paid four-weekly, not monthly. It must be affecting a lot of people like me. It’s so unfair and upsetting. We are assessed to need extra help but are then arbitrarily not helped.”

The Department for Work and Pensions insists that the vast majority of existing recipients of universal credit will qualify for a cost of living payment but “inevitably a small number will be ineligible on the qualification dates because of a change of income, earnings or other circumstance”.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Earnings patterns can vary substantially and it would be impossible to choose qualifying dates that work for every single person on universal credit; however, autumn’s second qualifying date reduces the risk that those with non-monthly pay periods that were ineligible for the first payment miss out altogether.”