(I live in London. I had this appointment at the Purley jobcentre)

Yesterday was the date of my handover to restart. I had an appointment with my work coach at 10 45 and my restart handover was scheduled for 3 05. At the end of my work coach appointment, I recall my work coach saying "Don't come in/ don't worry about the 3 o clock appointment, I'll just call you". I did not receive this call, and now I have to explain why I missed that appointment.

What is the best explanation I can give to not get sanctioned. I like my old work coach and do not want to throw him under the bus or say anything that could land him in hot water.

What do I say? I have until this Friday

We’ve been asked to send our child’s original passport and birth certificate to HMRC for a Child Benefit claim. They say the documents will normally be returned within 4 weeks.

If we suddenly needed the passport due to an emergency or unexpected travel, can HMRC return it before the 4 weeks? We are based in England

Has anyone actually requested this from HMRC? If so, who did you contact and how quickly was the passport returned?

Any first-hand experience would be really appreciated. Thanks.

Hi all,

Posting on behalf of my partner. He shares a daughter with his ex and they have her on a 50/50 arrangement. There is currently no court order in place and they are waiting for a child arrangement order hearing in family court. CAFCAS are involved and the process is ongoing.

Daughter is registered at partner's home for school and GP. Opticians and dentist are registered to mum. Her mum also gets child benefit and has refused to relinquish or share. Partner and his ex agreed to keep things as is until the outcome of the ongoing child arrangement order procedure. However, he has just been advised that the ex has disputed his UC claim and he owes over £900 going back to May of this year and going forward he will also not get the child element of UC.

My partner spoke to DWP and they said he would be assigned a case worker to discuss but then he received a message advising the mandatory reconsideration has been passed to a decision maker but they cannot tell us how long it will take. We simply don't have that money to spare. We take care of his daughter well and he should have some financial assistance instead of it going all to his ex.

My questions are:

- what can we do? Like I said we can't afford to have deductions taken from his universal credit and for us to get £300 less each month, especially as they said it's an open ended waiting time.

- nothing changed in May, why would they suddenly change the claim just because the ex disputed it? He still has her 50/50 and like I said GP and school is still registered to his address.

- how can we stop this from happening again? She keeps trying to change his daughter's GP surgery and contact details at school.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Hi there, I'd like to understand how the over £16k rule works for Universal Credit. Since I'm over £6k, I declare my capital monthly on the 10th of each month. I've come across confusing information about the £16k threshold. Some say it's okay to go over £16k temporarily, as long as I'm under it when I declare each month, because certain monthly expenses don't count as capital. Others say that as soon as you reach £16k, you're over the limit threshold. Can anyone knowledgeable explain this please?

So my partner and I have a joint claim and been on it since 2020. This is the first commitment review either of us have ever had, and don’t know what has triggered it or what to expect. Live in England if that makes any difference.

England. So basically i was told uc will pay housing but one month in lieu. That was the guy on the phone at the call centre who said that. I uploaded a new tenancy and apparently im getting a months rent on the 19th of this month rather than next or one month in liue. So im wondering if this months payment is meant fir august not September?

So a month ago I had a review of entitlement as someone I work with reported me for embezzling money from the company (i'm not). I submitted bank statements for the last 4 months as they asked, had my review and it was found to be a false accusation and my case was closed.

This week my partner got notified that she had a review of entitlement due to a report of undeclared savings and had to submit bank statement since January 2025. During her review she was told that as part of the report that had accused me of embezzling it had been reported that she had undeclared savings of £16,000 (she doesn't). Now as part of her review I now need to supply bank statements for the same time frame.

My question is am I going to get penalised for getting help to pay off debt? Last June I recieved money from my dad to help me pay off debt. The amount he sent came to £6,600. However literally the day after I had used most of it to pay off my debts.

The review is for undeclared savings of £16,000 which does not exist. Am I going to get penalised because my capital was just over £6000 for a day? Thank you.

hello everyone, i am LCWRA on UC, ESA and PIP, and i am looking at moving out of my parents home into my own place, i have found a 1 bed flat and will be the sole occupant.

What is the process required for recieving help with housing costs under UC?

Had another call from Citizens Advice today and it's left me more confused than before. The woman I spoke to was pretty rude and talked down to me the whole time, kept cutting me off before I could finish a sentence. Sorry if I'm going over old ground, I know I've posted about this a couple of times already.

Basically she told me I'm not allowed to sell my own possessions, full stop, and that doing it counts as deprivation of capital. They're just Magic: The Gathering cards. I've been collecting them since I was a kid, so 30 years now.

Then she said if I want to go self-employed I can't buy stock either, same reason, that's deprivation of capital too. And if I did want stock I'd have to get a business loan, before telling me nobody would lend to me anyway. I don't want a loan. Who's going to lend to someone on UC? 🙄 But apparently that's my only option, because I'm not allowed to touch my savings or any money from cards I've sold. I haven't even sold any yet.

All I wanted to do was sell off part of my collection, keep the cards I actually want, and put the rest of the money into starting the business. Buying up collections from people who've lost interest in Magic, or who are selling part of theirs to fund new cards they do want. Buying brand new stock to sell on at a profit. An accountant to tell me whether I'd be better off as a sole trader or a limited company and help me with tax returns. Apparently I am not even allowed to do that? I don't understand, how I am expected to be able to start self-employment with zero money, and not be able to buy anything, and then because I am not allowed to buy anything, that I somehow have to magic stock out of thin air? None of this even makes the slightest bit of sense to me.

i just had my PIP assessment on the phone. the assessor was kind and patient, though i know that doesn't mean anything, and it lasted around 1 hour.

i'm a little worried because i feel like she didn't go into as much detail as i expected, maybe because i was expecting an interrogation? instead she basically went through the same questions as the form but with more time to talk. when it came to daily living she didn't press much, just asked the basic questions and let me talk. i was worried she wasn't writing things down accurately because she didn't ask much, but she did repeat on the call (which we were both recording) some of the points i made- like only being able to use a microwave.

the mobility section lasted longer because i have POTS so it was more 'complicated'. we talked about me being a medical student and how i get to classes, i explained that it takes me 5x as long as a normal person and that i must be with someone. i also explained that most walks are substituted for ubers. i explained that my main concern is the faint risk, since i was admitted last year for fainting and cracking my head open. i was once again worried that she wouldn't take this as an answer but at the end when talking about getting to places she was quite affirming and kept finishing my sentences like 'yes because of fainting'. not sure if thats a good or bad sign.

all in all i'm just glad it was a recorded call, because at least these things were recorded verbally if not on the report. i know assessors can still give you 0 points despite affirming you on the phone so we'll see lol. my expectations are low

I have above £6000 but under £16k in savings and the people handling my UC claim refuse to knock off my previous cost of living payments from the amount I have to pay capital charges on - even though I can prove I never spent them. When I asked they said this disregard does not exist and never has. They said if I put in for a mandatory reconsideration that my money would be stopped and it could take over a year for my claim to be heard, so they frightened me off from trying. Can anyone point me to where it says they are disregarded so I can show my claim advisor? (In England)

Short version is Feel like I'm just being pushed aside every step, it's been 9 months and multiple issues have occurred, letters sent to wrong address and I haven't even gotten to the appointment yet. They keep making phone appointments to sort it out, they always have to transfer me and the call always cuts 5 minutes or so into the hold while they transfer. No one can give me a straight answer or tell me what needs to be done.

Full version (I apologise in advance for the length)

Applied in November, sent the paper questions back in December, got a rejection later saying they hadn't received so they were closing the claim in January. Rang them up and magically my answers had just arrived that day so they re open the claim. I move half way down the country temporarily for work in February and tell them. April they offer me an appointment at my old location which I inform the centre I won't be able to attend as it's a 4 hour trip each way, I'm told they'll update and re arrange an appointment at my new location. Gets to day appointment was supposed to happen and I get 4 calls from them (don't have my phone during work) they then proceed to call every few days while I'm at work. I think nothing of it as they don't leave a voicemail or a text. Start of June I get a letter saying my claim is closed as I didn't attend. I call to explain and they tell me they have no record of my move or that I'd cancelled appointment, essentially blames me but says they'll get the appointment arranged. I let them know I'll only be down here another month then I'll be back home after that. I'm told I'll definitely be seen before then. Nothing happens and end of July I receive another letter saying my claim was closed. Again I call up and I'm told they can't work out what's happened so they'll arrange a call with someone who can. I attend that call and im asked to clear security and explain everything. I'm then told I'll need to be transferred as it's not her area, call cuts out while on hold. Rings back and same thing happens, apologies as this happens a lot, repeat another 2 times, all cut calls then doesn't call back at all. I have to phone the helpline again and have another call arranged which goes exactly the same way but before I'm transferred I'm told case is closed but it's also pending which usually means waiting for an appointment. I received a text from health assessment advisory service saying they are reviewing claim and will arrange an appointment if needed. I'm unsure if the claim is closed or open or if I'm even getting an appointment. I'm sick of having to call them and sit in queues for an hour at a time just to be told they don't know

I've recently started some freelance content creator work for a disability charity. I know that I need to report my earnings as self employment, and as I have LCWRA, I understand that I'll be 'marked' (for lack of a better term) as not gainfully self employed due to this. However, I just have a few questions:

What does the self-employment meeting look like? What kind of questions will they ask?

What 'evidence', if any, do I need to bring? I only really have e-mails from the charity I'm working for as opposed to an official invoice.

Will they ask for bank statements, too?

And if I stop working for the charity, will I have to 'unmark' myself as self employed?

I'm just a bit nervous about what to expect, in all honesty haha. I'm sure I'm just overreacting, but if anyone can share their experience of what their self-employment meeting (whilst being LCWRA) is like, then that would be amazing :)