Fascinatingly complex scenario when you make an effort. After being made unemployed in July I have been trying to do bits and bobs with casual work for three employers whilst I look after my ill mum and look for a more permanent position.

I get a nice tax rebate with a pay packet of just one weeks work for one of the employers and therefore do not get any Universal Credit for October because the pay plus the rebate takes me over the threshold of income for that month because the DWP takes tax rebates as pay. Fair enough but they then go and tell my council that my Universal Credit claim has been cancelled so I have to go through all the rigmarole of sending pay slips, hours worked, bank balances and the like to the council re council tax benefit and the council interestingly "do not" class tax rebates as income or pay! Regardless having more than one employer on a casual basis is a nightmare with the council who don't seem to know how to handle it and I may well have full whack council tax one month and then have to reapply monthly depending on wage which is always low anyway!

So I have now had to email UC to see if I need to reclaim because I might not earn anything from the three employers this month although another nice little confusion arrived in the form of a small pay check from one employer with yet another healthy tax rebate,,,, two in one month from different employers?!?!?! Transpires that rebate earlier this month may be an error but I won't find out until the end of the tax year when I might, or might not have to pay it back!!!

Either work full time or not at all seems to be the easiest way to avoid mega confusion on all counts as three mini employers is a logistical nightmare!!

UC is a moveable feast of nightmares with people falling in and out of free NHS dental and eyecare, the 5 week month is good at causing that, and Council Tax bills vary month to month.

I feel for you! The whole Universal Credit system appears to be a nightmare.

My son, who is main carer and usually gets carer's allowance plus income support foolishly took a part-time, short term contract job for 10 hours a week for 6 weeks. As a result his income support claim has been closed, but they didn't tell him for 3 1/2 months and kept paying until 2 weeks ago even though he'd submitted payslips etc weekly. They haven't (yet) asked for any overpayment to be paid back.

We consider ourselves to be fairly tech savvy, but even so we've had to spend nearly 3 hours this morning making a claim for universal credit, which allegedly can't be back dated even though the delay is DWP's error. I've told him not to bother with part-time jobs in future, once he'd paid travel expenses he was no better off anyway and it's just too much hassle to sort out afterwards.

You are both so right. I am in a bit of a quandary now as I am due in London for another Vertigo appointment tomorrow and at my last appointment, the month when I got a UC payment, I could get a reimbursement on my travel expenses. I also have a dental appointment on Monday which again was booked when I was receiving UC so could have that done on the NHS. However despite my claim being still open I have not received any UC this month purely down to that tax rebate and a small wage so I am now not sure if I qualify for the travel reimbursement or the NHS dental treatment? Plus I have to forward my pay slip for the weeks bits I did last week to the council which I won't receive until 10th November.

Do I still qualify for the travel and dentist with a big fat zero on my UC Statement? If not it will be £15 quid train, £70 odd quid dentist and potentially a £110 council tax bill totalling £195 which along with bills on 1st month will wipe out my tax rebate and small wage!!!! I would rather cancel the appointment and dentist than risk it and get into trouble for claiming for them whilst not qualifying!

It's ridiculous especially when you make an effort to get your foot in the door somewhere. I cannot for the life of me work out how these people you hear about in the papers get £50000 in benefits whilst being able and doing absolutely nothing!

If you had a nil UC statement due to earnings you would most likely not qualify for free dental treatment or travel costs.

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/help-with-health-costs/help-with-health-costs-for-people-getting-universal-credit/

Council tax would be subject to council reduction scheme rules.

With Universal Credit, if you have a fluctuating situation, it will be a nightmare to deal with. Each month of Universal Credit is effectively a new benefit period, although self employed losses/income can be carried over into future statements.

So you could have entitlement to council tax help etc during one assessment month and not have entitlement another month.

Thanks unclebulgaria67. That's me cancelling the dentist then!!! May as well pay for the vertigo appointment myself as it's such late notice and it costs the NHS a packet in last minute cancellations, that's the irony this nightmare isn't only costing the client because I can't imagine I'll be the only one cancelling such appointments because I can't afford them! I would certainly be better off not having any of these jobs and yet that shouldn't be the case.

The irony is if I had "earned" £435 or less I could have claimed according to that link. I earned less than that and was put just over by a tax rebate!!!