No Work, Still Got Job But No Income Or Savings

[foxyferret]

My daughter swapped jobs at the wrong time to be furloughed. The coffee shop she works at obviously had to close, so at the moment, even though she still has a job, she has no income. She has an 11 year old daughter. She has applied for universal credit and received one payment in 3 months of £360. Next payment due next week. Is there a minimum rate of Universal Credit as this didn’t seem a lot? Her boss is not opening up yet as he is trying to get all the safety precautions in place so she has no idea when she will be returning to work. I have been paying her rent, council tax and food bills but my pension only just covers this and my own bills so there is nothing left after. She has had a one off emergency reduction in council tax of £150. She lives in a council property so I was wondering if you can claim housing benefit to help with the rent as well as claiming Universal Credit? I don’t believe she knows what she is entitled to and what she is getting at the moment doesn’t even come close to covering just the basic bills, Many thanks for any advice.
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[waterboatman]

Go and see the Council today. They are very helpful and will do what they can for you.

[fiction-factory]

She should ask questions about her UC amounts - it's clearly wrong or the details have got lost in translation.
The monthly payment for a single person over 25 is over £400 a month plus whatever she gets for the child. She should check this calculator https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/benefits-check/
She might have had to wait a month or so for the first payment but would have been eligible for a fairly significant advance which would have been close to £360.
There's child benefit too.
The only things that could complicate all this is if she was getting working tax credits.
She should check on the UC calculator site and then speak to th e benfits office

[fiction-factory]

When did she lose her job, foxyferret? And when did she receive her last wage payment from that job?

[foxyferret]

Fiction, She didn’t lose her previous job.She left in January as she wanted the coffee shop job. She started late Feb at the new place but she wasn’t on the payroll in time to be furloughed. Her previous job was at the school so that was also closed. I will check out the benefits calculator, thank you.She was getting tax credits but these stop if you go on to Universal Credit. She told them she did not want a loan or advanced payment as she didn’t want to be paying it back.

[fiction-factory]

>She started late Feb at the new place but she wasn’t on the payroll in time to be furloughed.
So when was she told to stay of work please , ff? If around late March she should have received pay from late Feb to when she last worked- sounds like roughly a month;s pay. Then she should have got UC around end April, end May and end June, so that's 3 payments (maybe 2 plus the one due next week)
Yes, tax credits can complicate it

[foxyferret]

She was told to stay home around 18 March I think so she had about two and a half weeks pay. She applied for universal credit towards the end of the month but I think they were so inundated at the time, it took so long to process. She did not want an advance payment as she didn’t want to owe the money back. I think she should get the full amount on around the 4th July but it’s still not enough to pay the rent and council tax. I will fill in a benefit checker because she may be able to get something she doesn’t know about. Many thanks ff.

[THECORBYLOON]

If she was on their payroll on or before 19th March and HMRC had been notified on or before that date, employers can apply for help.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-which-employees-you-can-put-on-furlough-to-use-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme#employees-you-can-claim-for

Was there a delay in getting your daughter put on the payroll?

[foxyferret]

There may have been a delay corbyloon. Not sure if her boss acted quickly enough and as she had only just started the job, I don’t think she wanted to question him about it in order not to rock the boat. He may have thought he had a trouble maker if she had said anything. You don’t like to grill a new boss.

[Skyline D]

It depends on the timing of the MTD return to HMRC thecorbyloon. I imagine most employees who started right at the end of February or in early March would not have been on a MTD return in time to be furloughed as typically most employers do this monthly. There's almost certainly no delay here.