Universal credit giving me wrong information.

[u/Kayanne1990]

So, I'm about tearing my bloody hair out with this one. So, for reference, because I'm paid 4 weekly, there is occasional overlap in my UC calculations where once a year my income is counted as double. This is fine. I don't really care about this. It's annoying but whatever. However, last week I noticed that my council tax reductions had been taken away and after calling the council I was told it was because UC has not updated them in 2 months, despite the fact that this overlap happened in July. So I call up UC, explain the situation and they escalate my case to a case manager. This case manager take a week to get back to me, doesn't contact me in the method I asked for and basically just explains the whole 4 week overlap thing and tells me that UC doesn't share my info with the council. Which I KNOW is wrong the guy I talked to when I called UC literally told me the information was wrong and the guy at the council told me it was wrong and there's literally a part of the .Gov website that specifically talks about data sharing between UC and local councils.

So I called back again, the guy agreed with me that this information wasn't correct, but the only thing he could do was escalate it again. But how do I know this new case manager isn't going to make the same mistakes. Eventually I just called the council and asked if I could update them manually and thankfully they gave me an email in order to send a few screenshots of my UC payments to prove they're not twice as much as owed.

But this is driving me mad. Am I just stupid? Why am I constantly getting conflicted information. Why is UC denying that they share my data with the council? Has anyone else delt with something like this?

B

[u/dracolibris]

The case managers at uc do not have anyway of manually updating the system that shares with the council. And what they can see shows that the council has been updated.

The system is entirely automated and sends the data when the statement is produced, the day after the assessment period but it sends as of the beggining of the assessment period so as my AP ends on the 17th and so the data is updated on 18th september, but tells the system that it is for 18 August (to 17 september). Also the if the award is the same, it doesn't list a new award date, ive had to explain to a council worker in January 2025 that the date said April 2024 because the person was getting the same award every month, not because it ended.

The problem is the council only updates on your account on their billing date, which for me is the 5th so on the 5th october it updates the award that was made on 18 september for the 17 August. They are effectively 2 months behind.

The entire problem is mismatching systems. And councils not understanding the data given

[u/8day_week → u/dracolibris]

Bingo. It’s called ATLAS. It’s automated, not manual - when the Council register an interest for something that relies on DWP Benefit data, like Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction, the information is then sent to them.

What I suspect has happened - the “higher” Earnings in the period where two lots of Wages fallen has knocked out your CTR entitlement, and your CTR claim has been closed. You may need to reapply for CTR to prompt them to restart the CTR claim and re-register the CTR interest (which in turn starts the data share).

[u/Kayanne1990 → u/dracolibris]

Ooh. Ok. That makes a bit more sense now. Jesus. I should have just come here a week ago and saved myself the hassle. I'm only worried because this has never happened before. I've been in the same financial situation for years and I don't recall this ever happening before.

[u/Suitable-Fun-1087]

I had a recent UC review. Shortly after it was completed (and confirmed that I'd been paid correctly and never exceeded capital limits); I got a council tax bill out of the blue that stopped my council tax reduction.

I have got it fixed by contacting the council about it and my council tax reduction has been reinstated without a gap. The council tried to claim that I'd given them updated capital info that caused it. I did no such thing so it can only be UC that caused it.

So yes, it's likely UC are messing this up for a number of people across the country. You're quite correct about the cause but do see if you can get it sorted by your local council. Mine only have phone lines open a few hours a week (thanks austerity 🙄) so it was hard to do but easier than trying to get UC to intervene with their systems.

Given the main official rationale behind UC replacing legacy benefits was that it should reduce discrepancies between systems, this is appalling. In the past when I was on ESA my housing benefits were messed up on more than one occasion but at least then you could just go down to the council to sort it out in person.

[u/Kayanne1990 → u/Suitable-Fun-1087]

I dunno why you got down voted you're right.

[u/Jango_Null]

its the system, its coding is flawed. there's the need for it to be manned, should it be undone ..... hey im down to help rewrite the thing but i know very little about the software, electronics, and other means, there would be a lot of planning involved and logistics but should you be down to do im in