Although we charge you a weekly rent, Universal Credit is assessed and paid monthly.
Because of this, Universal Credit only covers 364 days in a year, even though there are 365 days in a year (and 366 every leap year). This means your Universal Credit is always going to be one day short each year (or two in a leap year).
WHY IS THIS?
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) works out your monthly rent by multiplying one week’s rent by 52 and dividing it by 12. This would be fine if there were exactly 52 weeks rent in a year but there aren’t. There’s always an extra day in the year, or two in a leap year.
You won’t normally notice this but every few years when the extra day falls on a Monday it will show on your rent account as a full week’s debt. 2019 is one of these years. The DWP won’t pay any extra Universal Credit to cover this.
WILL THIS AFFECT ME?
If you are clearing your rent account every week or month, (reducing the balance to zero) - then this won’t be a problem. But, where you pay your rent every month by using the same system as the DWP (your weekly rent x 52 and divided by 12, for instance) then you’ll be a day short every year and two in a leap year, so you will have to pay us for those extra days.
If you think you are going to be affected by this please contact us, we’ll be happy to help
- customerservices@accentgroup.org
- webchat available via our homepage, accentgroup.org
- 0345 678 0555
