Employers: understanding employees' welfare benefits

Universal credit

Universal credit (UC) has replaced tax credits, and some other social security benefits.

Any in-work UC support your employee is entitled to will be calculated by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) using pay information provided by you to HMRC via the Real Time Information (RTI) system where possible.

The key features of UC as far as employers are concerned are:

• Unlike the old position under tax credits, employees do not need to work a minimum number of hours to qualify but they will have a claimant commitment that may require them to seek more work in order to reach a certain earnings threshold. This is called conditionality.
• Monthly UC payments for employees are usually calculated based on RTI data provided to HMRC by employers.
• Payments of UC are usually adjusted automatically based on the amount reported under RTI, so if earnings increase in one month then UC payments might decrease and vice versa.

In short, the implications for employers are:

• Employers do not need to know if their employees are claiming UC and often do not need to do anything differently.
• UC claimants are treated the same way as other employees for payroll purposes. There are no special tax codes or extra reporting requirements.
• Employers don’t need to report earnings separately. PAYE information sent to HMRC is automatically forwarded to the DWP.
• There is no need to notify HMRC if an employee or prospective employee claims UC. when a claimant is accepted as eligible, DWP send an electronic message to HMRC who update their records accordingly.

There are, however, some areas which employers do need to be aware of. These are outlined below.

As there are no hours thresholds in UC, employees may look to increase their hours, or be open to taking on ad hoc overtime.

As RTI data is used to calculate UC each month, it is important that the RTI reports made by employers are accurate. It is also important that they are on time (usually on or before the employee’s pay day but HMRC have specific guidance in place where an employee is paid early or late, for example due to Christmas or their usual pay day falling on a non-banking day):

• contractual pay date is 25th of the month
• Christmas pay date is 20th of the month
• FPS payment date is 25th of the month – in line with contractual pay date.

Failure in this can lead to employees receiving the wrong amount of UC. A late filing, for example, can lead to payments falling in the wrong month for UC purposes. This can lead to uneven UC awards or, if a late submission results in two payments apparently being made in the same month, the DWP may think that the employee’s income has gone up, with the result that the employee’s UC claim could be significantly reduced for that month or even stopped altogether.

There is a reallocation solution, which is good news for people impacted, however its better to try and avoid the issue in the first place. To be clear, the reallocation solution is for employees to initiate, not employers, however in some instances you may be asked to help, perhaps by confirming information or providing evidence etc.

Employers that are exempt from online payroll reporting need to inform their employees of this, as the employees will be personally responsible for reporting their earnings to the DWP as set out on our PAYE paper filing page.

DWP provides universal credit information for employers on GOV.UK.

Changes to hours or pay

You may sometimes need to make changes to either hours or pay for your employees – for example, if your business is struggling financially.

Any changes to hours or pay can impact on your employees’ UC. It is therefore important to tell your employees to seek advice from a local advice agency such as Citizens Advice as to how any potential change may impact their award.

If you have a disabled employee

UC can be very important for low-income workers, particularly those with disabilities. As well as meaning employees can receive additional money, UC can help employees with disabilities to remain in work when they may otherwise have been forced to leave.

More information about employing a disabled person can be found in our guidance here.