Universal Credit is a single monthly payment from the government. It's meant to cover your living costs and rent if you're out of work or on a low income.

We've put together a guide on understanding Universal Credit, just click on the titles below to go to the section you'd like to read about.

In the past, you might've got a number of different benefits. Universal Credit replaces and combines these old benefits into a single monthly payment:

If the amount of Universal Credit you're entitled to is less than the amount you got with the old benefits, you'll get some extra money to top up your Universal Credit. The government call this a 'transitional amount'. You'll only get this 'transitional amount' if you transferred to Universal Credit through 'managed migration’, where the government moves you from your old benefits to Universal Credit.

The rules for getting Universal Credit might be different than your old benefits. For example,

Universal Credit is 'means tested', which means the government base how much money you get on your household circumstances and your existing income.

They'll assess your circumstances every month, and the amount of Universal Credit you get might change.

No. You’ll still be able to get an account if you have debt or County Court Judgments (CCJs).

Turn2Us has an excellent tool for getting an overview of what benefits you could be entitled to. You can also see how this could change if you started work.

If you’re applying for Universal Credit for the first time, we’re here to walk you through it! There are also lots of useful resources and places you can go to for support.

You apply for universal credit online.

If you and your partner live together, you have to apply as a couple (you don't need to be married).

There are 5 steps to make a Universal Credit application:

At your Job Centre interview, you'll need to bring proof of all the details you provide. So make sure you keep these documents in a safe place, and take them with you on the day of your interview.

When you fill out your application for Universal Credit, you'll need to enter an address. 

If you don't have an address, don’t worry. You can use the address of:

When you fill out your application for Universal Credit, you'll need to enter a phone number. 

If you don't have a mobile phone, enter 00000000000 (i.e. 11 zeros) instead.

Then, when they ask you how you prefer to be contacted, you'll need to choose email. This is really important, as you'll need to get all the information to manage your claim online.

You do need to have an email address to apply for and manage your Universal Credit payments.

If you don’t have an email address, check out this Which? guide to setting up an email account. You’ll need to get one before you can apply for Universal Credit.

If you don't have a bank account, you might be eligible for the government’s Payment Exception Service. This is a way for people who don't have a bank account to collect their benefits. But this option's only available in some very limited circumstances.

If you don't have a bank account, you’ll get the option to get vouchers from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) through text, post or on a loaded payment card. You can collect the money at any shop that displays the PayPoint logo, you just need to being some ID.

If you don't have a bank account because you don't have a fixed address, you can get a bank account with Monzo.

Citizens Advice have a service called Help to Claim. They can help guide you through the process of applying for Universal Credit online. 

They’ll help you do things like:

A charity called the Good Things Foundation's has a programme called Learn My Way. It's got accessible online courses to help you get to grips with using the internet and managing your money online.

If you don't have access to the internet at home, your local library should have computers and internet you can use for free.

If don't have the support you need to complete an application online, the government can help you. Call an adviser on the Universal Credit helpline on 0800 328 5644 or text phone 0800 328 1344. You can discuss the option of making an application over the phone with their guidance.

Give them as much information about why you're finding it difficult to claim online.

If none of the options they recommend work for you, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) can also arrange to visit your home to help you make your claim.

You don't need to have photo ID to complete your application.

When you complete the online claim, they'll give you the option to verify your identity using gov.uk/verify. This process lets them confirm that you’re really you.

As part of the process, they'll send you a verification code which is only valid for 20 minutes. If there's a delay with the code coming through to your email or phone, you might not see it in time and will have to start the process again. This could delay your claim, so you might find it easier to take your ID to your first interview at the Job Centre instead. They can verify your identity for you there.

For your first appointment at the Job Centre, you need to take three forms of ID with you: one primary ID and two supporting bits of secondary evidence.

The Job Centre will accept these documents as your primary ID:

The Job Centre will accept these documents as your secondary ID:

Full list here.

If you can't provide three accepted forms of ID, the government will ask you to do a 'biographical interview'. This involves answering a set of questions about yourself, to help prove you are who you say you are. You can see a full list of the questions they’ll ask you here (on page 4).

They group questions as high, medium and low value. High value questions are ones that only you are likely to know. 

You'll need to get at least three questions right to go ahead with your application, and one of the needs them needs to be a 'high value' question.

If you don't have any ID, a third party can help verify you are who you say you are. For example, if two workers at the Job Centre know you, they can assign you a personal security number so you won’t need an ID.

Yes. It's really important to share your personal circumstances early on. This will let your job coach create a ‘claimant commitment’ that’s realistic and achievable for you. A claimant commitment outlines what you have to do to keep getting Universal Credit. 

It’ll also let your job coach know if you need more help with budgeting, or if getting paid monthly doesn’t work for you.

You should tell them if you're: 

If you find it difficult to talk about this, you may want to write it in a letter and give it to your job coach instead. You can use this template to write your letter.

At the face to face interview at the Job Centre, you have to agree to a claimant commitment before they accept your claim.

The agreement outlines what you have to do to keep getting Universal Credit. The agreement normally covers your health, dependent family, and your potential to make money in the future. 

You and your job coach will review and revise it regularly.

If you’re not happy with any part of the commitment your job coach is suggesting you agree to, you should discuss it with them. 

If your situation changes so you can’t meet your commitment any more, you should also discuss it with them and explain what’s changed or what you need help with.

Under the Equality Act 2010, the government has a duty to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to help people with a disability or health condition meet the conditions for claiming or getting benefits.

If you discuss it with your job coach but they don’t agree to change your commitment, you can:

Usually you have to accept a claimant commitment to keep getting benefits. But your job coach can temporarily remove this requirement if it’s unreasonable to expect you to accept one, like if there’s a medical or domestic emergency.

The requirement to accept a claimant commitment can be temporarily removed in ‘exceptional circumstances’ where it is unreasonable to expect you to accept one (DWP guidance gives examples of medical or domestic emergencies)

If you don’t attend your first interview, they’ll usually close your claim the day after you didn’t turn up. 

They’ll expect you to make a new claim and ask them to backdate your Universal Credit.

The law (Section 8(1)(a) of the Social Security Act 1998) makes it clear the government need to make a decision on your claim (even if it’s to refuse it). The act also says that you can appeal this decision.

So if you do miss your appointment, you can also ask them for a ‘decision notification’, then ask them to rethink that decision through a formal process called a ‘mandatory reconsideration.’ You’ll need to do this over the phone or in writing. 

But in the meantime, it's also worth putting in a new claim to be safe.

Once you get approved for Universal Credit, it’ll take five weeks after the date you submitted your claim for you to get the first payment. 

It takes them four weeks to assess your earnings from last month, and a further week to process the payment.

Five weeks can be a long time. And if you don’t have enough money to tide you over until your first payment, there are a few things you can do.

You can apply for a Universal Credit advance through your online account or work advisor. They’ll usually tell you if they’ve accepted your application or not on the same day.

The most Universal Credit you can get as an advance is the amount of your first estimated payment.

Here’s the application for an interest-free budgeting loan. If you can't print the form you can always ask them to print it at your local Job Centre Plus.

The Flexible Support Fund is available to anyone who’s getting help from the Job Centre, from the moment you start a claim.

You're not eligible for the extra cash if you're already getting help from the Work Programme, Work Choice or any legacy benefits that give you the same support.

Like we’ve explained above, once you get approved for Universal Credit, it’ll take five weeks after the date you submitted your claim for you to get the first payment. 

If you can’t wait five weeks until your first payment, you can get an advance on your first Universal Credit payment.

Advance payment fraud happens when someone makes a fraudulent claim for a Universal Credit advance payment in another person’s name.

This scam targets people who are getting the old benefits but need to transfer to Universal Credit.

The scam usually works like this:

They might not mention anything about Universal Credit in your conversation.

Because the Universal Credit advance is a loan, you’ll be responsible for paying it back when you start to get Universal Credit.

If someone makes a fraudulent application for a Universal Credit advance in your name and you don’t get the payment, the DWP won’t make you pay it back. But if you got any of the advance, they’ll still expect you to pay it back. 

Possibly. But the strength of your claim depends on whether the fraudster made the application without you knowing or they misled you into making a claim. If they made the claim without you knowing, you might be able to switch back to the old benefits. If you made the claim yourself – even if they misled you into doing it – it’s unlikely you’ll be able to switch back. 

It's your responsibility to prove to the DWP that someone made the claim fraudulently.

If you’ve never knowingly or intentionally made a claim for Universal Credit, but the DWP doesn’t let you go back to the old benefits, you should submit a mandatory reconsideration.

If you’ve been a victim of advance payment fraud, you should report it to the DWP immediately. You should also:

When you get Universal Credit, you'll usually get paid once a month. This might be different from your old benefits, where you might get paid more often (like every week). It can be difficult to adjust if you're not used to budgeting monthly. Or if you have lots of expenses, it can be hard to make the money last. 

Alternative payment arrangements are different ways you can arrange for the government to pay you your Universal Credit. They can be useful if getting paid once a month doesn’t work for you.

There are three types of alternative payment arrangements available: 

You can combine these arrangements if you need to.

The decisions the DWP make about alternative payment arrangements are final, so you can’t appeal them. But they regularly review your circumstances to check if anything’s changed. And if something has changed, you should let them know as soon as possible. If you don’t, they could be paying you more (or less) than they should be, and could ask you to pay the money back.

If you’re in any of the following circumstances, the DWP is likely to agree to let you use alternative payment options if you: 

Be sure to explain the details of your circumstances when you’re asking for an advanced payment arrangement. If you’re in one of the circumstances we just mentioned, this’ll probably strengthen your case.

How much Universal Credit you get will depend on how much you earn. As you earn more, your Universal Credit payments will go down. The government will reduce your payment by 63p for every £1 you earn.

There’s no limit to how many hours you can work. Just remember it’ll affect how much Universal Credit you can get.

When you’re paying back any Universal Credit advances, you can push your repayments back by three months if you’re having an 'unexpected financial crisis' and can prove this to the DWP.

Sometimes, the DWP will take away some of your Universal Credit before they pay you. They’ll use it to pay your bills if you’re behind, or if you got an advanced payment and you need to pay it back, for example). The DWP can take a maximum of 30% of your Universal Credit payments at a time.

But this 30% limit doesn't include ‘last resort deductions’, ‘third party deductions’, or monthly utility bills. These can happen if you’re behind on payments for your housing or fuel (in ‘arrears’) and at risk of getting evicted or having your gas or electricity cut off. The DWP can take ‘last resort deductions’ from your Universal Credit payments to pay for your bills. 

If the deductions the DWP are making from your Universal Credit mean you don’t have enough money to live, you can ask them to take off smaller amounts instead. But you’ll have to prove that you can’t afford them by showing them evidence of your income and a financial statement that shows what you’re spending your money on. 

You should be able to submit these through your online account. But if you don’t have one, you can give them this information in your online journal or by writing a letter.

If your Universal Credit payment won’t cover your rent, your local council should be able to help you make up the difference. 

The government gives your local council pots of money to use for ‘discretionary housing payments.’ The council can give you this money to if you’re struggling to make up the gap between the amount of Universal Credit you get and how much your housing costs.

How you claim ‘discretionary housing payments’ differs depending on your local council.

If you’re moving from Housing Benefit to Universal Credit, you’ll keep getting Housing Benefit for two weeks. But remember, it usually takes five weeks to get your first Universal Credit payment. So you might want to read about what to do if you [can’t wait five weeks until your first payment].

If you live in a hostel, refuge or supported accommodation, you can claim Universal Credit.  But if you get support from your local authority, the DWP might not pay your housing costs.

To cover your housing costs, you’ll have to claim housing benefit from your local authority, who found and placed you in your current home.

Ask your landlord or housing provider if you don’t know if you can claim housing benefit at the same time as Universal Credit.

If you’ve stopped getting your Universal Credit payments, it’s probably because you’ve had your benefits cut. This is known as a ‘sanction’. It happens if you don’t meet one of the things you agreed to in your ‘claimant commitment’ and can’t give a good reason to explain why.

Depending on what you failed to do and how many times you haven’t met your claimant commitments, a sanction can last for up to three years.

You can ask for a mandatory reconsideration, which means the DWP will review their decision.

You can request a mandatory consideration up to a month after they made the original decision. The DWP might call you to discuss it.

If you have documents supporting your challenge, they might invite you to send or share them. But only do this if it’s essential to your challenge, as it can increase the time it takes to get a decision.

The DWP will send you a ‘mandatory consideration notice’ in the post, to tell you if they’ve changed their decision or not and why.

It can take the DWP anything between two weeks and a couple of months to send you this reply. There’s no deadline.

If you’ve not got your mandatory reconsideration notice, it’s a good idea to call the DWP after:

If they’ve turned down you request, you have the option to appeal to an independent tribunal that’s overseen by a judge and someone from the DWP. You can apply here and will need to attach copies of your mandatory consideration. 

Your journal is your record of everything you’ve done while claiming Universal Credit. You can only access and update it online, and you should be updating it regularly.

You can also use it to send messages to and see replies from your job coach. Although it can take up to five days (and in some situations even longer) to get a reply. If you haven't heard back from them after five days, it’s worth trying to call your job coach or case manager at the Job Centre.

Your job coach is the person you see at the Job Centre. And your case manager is the person who makes decisions on your claim. Both of them will have access to your journal.

If you’ve been sanctioned, the best way to ask for a mandatory reconsideration is through your journal. Include a message explaining why you think the decision is wrong.

If you’ve been sanctioned, hardship payments are loans to help you pay for food, rent and bills. 

You may be entitled to get the equivalent of 60% of your Universal Credit payment a day. 

If you still need help when your first hardship payment stops, you can apply for another one.

The DWP will deduct it in instalments from your monthly Universal Credit payment at the end of the sanction period.

You have to be 18 or over to apply for a hardship loan. And you’ll have to show that you’ve tried to:

Call the Universal Credit helpline to ask for a hardship payment.

When you apply for a hardship payment, make sure you explain what’s causing you hardship or making it more likely that you’ll experience hardship. This includes health, disability, pregnancy and any special needs you, your partner or your children have.

When the DWP decides if you’d experience hardship, they’ll consider: 

They also have to take into account any other resources that might be available to you, like your income and other capital that’s disregarded when they calculate your benefit, such as Disability Living Allowance or savings below £6,000.

Check you’re getting all the financial help you're entitled to

Earlier this year we launched the No Barriers To Banking campaign to address some of the key issues facing financially excluded communities. Head to the site for more information and get in touch with collaborative ideas f you work for a charity or organisation in the social inclusion sector.