Guides
Plain-English explanations of how the numbers work, what changed, and the mistakes that cost people money.
Category
Universal Credit
The whole sum in order: standard allowance, elements, capital, work allowance and the 55% taper, with the 2026/27 figures at each step.
The two-child limit ended, the health element split into two rates, and every allowance rose above inflation. What changed on 6 April 2026, with the figures.
Since April 2026 the health element is paid at two rates. Which one you get depends on when you reported your condition, not on the condition itself.
Since 6 April 2026 Universal Credit pays a child element for every child. What changed, when the money arrived, and what to check on your statement.
Category
Housing
How much of your rent Universal Credit covers: the LHA cap for private renters, the spare-room reduction for social ones, and the deduction for every other adult.
The sharing rules behind both the LHA cap and the bedroom tax: who gets a room of their own, who is expected to share, and what earns an extra room.
The under-occupancy reduction in plain English: the 14% and 25% cuts, who is exempt, how to challenge a decision, and what to do about the shortfall.
Category
Work and money
How the 55% taper and the work allowance interact with income tax and National Insurance, and what an extra hour is actually worth on Universal Credit.
How Universal Credit assesses self-employed earnings month by month, what the minimum income floor assumes you earn, and when the start-up period ends.
The 85% childcare element, the monthly caps, why it is paid in arrears, and how to get help with the first month's bill.
Category
Payments and deductions
Why the day you claim fixes every payment date, what the five-week wait is, and why two pay dates in one period cut an award.
The 15% cap on deductions, how advances are repaid, the order debts are taken in, and how to ask for the amount to be reduced.
What the benefit cap limits, the 2026/27 amounts, which benefits count, and the exemptions that lift it completely.
Category
Moving to Universal Credit
The six benefits Universal Credit replaced, who is still on one, and what happens when the migration notice arrives.
Income-related ESA is ending. What happens to a support group award, when transitional protection applies, and why New Style ESA carries on separately.
Which legacy benefits have already gone, which are still moving, how migration notices are issued, and what the deadline in the letter actually does.
The support group becomes the health element. When a new Work Capability Assessment is needed, and which of the two health element rates should apply.
Category
Sanctions and appeals
What DWP does when you miss an appointment, what counts as a good reason, how to explain it in your journal, and the sanction that can follow.
Ask for a mandatory reconsideration within a month, then appeal to an independent tribunal. Both steps are free, and new evidence is what decides them.
Category
Health and capability
The UC50 and ESA50 have been replaced by one form, the WCA50. What it asks, what evidence to send with it, and what happens if it goes back late.
The DWP process end to end: what triggers a referral, the WCA50 form, the assessment itself, and the four decisions it can produce.
What the descriptors actually test: reliability, repeatability and safety. Why a bare tick loses points, and why accuracy beats emphasis every time.
One descriptor is enough for LCWRA. Substantial risk is a separate route in, and the severe conditions criteria are what protect the higher rate.
A telephone assessment is a long structured interview with a DWP healthcare professional. How to prepare, how it is recorded, and what happens if you miss it.
Category
Who can claim
Full-time students are usually excluded from Universal Credit. The exceptions that let you claim, and how a maintenance loan is counted as income.
An apprenticeship is a job, not a course, so the student exclusion does not apply. The apprentice minimum wage, and how the taper treats apprentice pay.
Universal Credit pays nothing towards a mortgage. Support for Mortgage Interest is a separate repayable loan, and your own home is not counted as capital.
Living with a partner means one joint claim, one standard allowance and both incomes counted. What counts as a couple, and what happens if you separate.
New Style Jobseeker's Allowance is contribution-based, Universal Credit is means-tested. When to claim one, when to claim both, and how they interact.
Statutory Sick Pay comes from your employer, Universal Credit from DWP. What a fit note does, what happens to your commitments, and how the assessment starts.
Category
Managing your claim
Universal Credit is paid monthly in arrears, seven days after each assessment period closes, which is why the first payment takes about five weeks.
What the Universal Credit journal is for, why written requests protect you, what a to-do means, and how long a reply usually takes.
What you must report, why a change applies to the whole assessment period it falls in and not the day you told DWP, and how late reporting creates overpayments.
There is no Universal Credit award letter. This is how to read the monthly statement in your account, line by line, and what to do when it looks wrong.
How to close a Universal Credit claim, why reporting the change is usually better than closing it, and what a new claim costs you if you need it again.
How to report a move, why the housing element follows your costs at the end of the assessment period, and what changes when you move to a new rental area.
Why a Universal Credit payment gets suspended, what actually lifts it, and where the money can come from while you wait for the claim to restart.