Universal Credit payment suspended: why, and how to get it moving

Three different things get called a stopped payment. A suspension holds the money while DWP checks something, and the payment is released once the check is done. A sanction reduces the standard allowance as a penalty for not meeting a work-related requirement, and it runs for a set period. A closure ends the claim altogether, usually because entitlement has ended. They have different causes and different routes out, so the first job is to work out which one you are in. Your journal will normally say. If it does not, ask in the journal, in writing, which of the three has happened and what is needed to resolve it. Ask in writing rather than by phone. A suspension often turns on a single missing document, and a dated journal message naming that document is worth more than a call nobody logged.

The most common reason is a claim review. A DWP claim review agent contacts you in your journal, asks for documents and books a telephone appointment. During a review, your payment is only stopped if you do not provide the documents, do not attend the appointment, or you turn out not to be eligible. Reviews can happen at any time and are not an accusation. Beyond reviews, a payment can be held while identity or evidence is verified, while an unreported change is checked, or while a fraud investigation runs. The common thread is that DWP is waiting for something, and nothing moves until it arrives. Reviews are routine and can happen at any point in a claim, so being picked for one says nothing about you. What matters is the response, and the three things that stop a payment during a review are all things you can act on.

Evidence, supplied exactly as asked. A review usually starts with bank statements, and the agent needs to see statements and documents unaltered, with nothing cropped, edited or annotated. Depending on the claim they may also ask about housing costs, earnings, self-employment, savings, childcare, children, student finance or caring responsibilities. If you do not understand what is wanted, or cannot produce a document in the format requested, ask the claim review agent in your journal rather than sending an approximation and hoping. Attend the telephone appointment. If you cannot make the time, say so in the journal before it, because a missed appointment is one of the three named reasons a payment stops during a review. Send everything in one go where you can. Evidence arriving in pieces restarts the wait each time, and each of those gaps is another month unpaid.

Be clear about what is available, because the wrong assumption here is expensive. A recoverable hardship payment is for a payment already reduced or missed because of a sanction or a fraud penalty, not for a payment held pending a check, and you can only apply once a lower or missed payment has actually happened. It is repaid at up to 15% of your standard allowance until it is cleared, and you have to reapply each time a payment is affected. If your hold is a review rather than a sanction, the fastest route to money is finishing the review. In the meantime, councils, food banks and free welfare rights services are the realistic options. Say plainly in your journal that you have no money for food, rent or heating. It does not create an entitlement on its own, but it puts the urgency on the record.

A review can find that you were paid too much, that you were paid too little, or that nothing changes. If it finds an underpayment you get an extra payment to make it up. If you disagree with a decision made during the review, you can challenge it, and the first step is a mandatory reconsideration. Ask for one within a month of the date of the decision, or later if you have a good reason such as illness or bereavement. It is free. Put the request in your journal so it is dated, say which decision you mean and why you think it is wrong, and attach anything that supports it. If the reconsideration goes against you, an appeal to a tribunal is the next step.