Universal credit claimants could fall in to a 'payment trap', the Department for Work and Pensions has warned, with up to 85,000 people at risk of having their benefits cut through no fault of their own.
As Birmingham Live reports, claimants who are employed may have inadvertently gone over the threshold at which the DWP stops paying out universal credit as a result of the bank holiday, since many employers opt to pay their employees early when pay day falls over a long weekend.
Some people may therefore have been paid twice during the month of April - once at the start of the month, and once at the end - meaning they may not qualify for universal credit this month.
Of course, people in such a position haven't actually been paid any more money than they are owed and have done nothing wrong - they've just been paid their wages slightly early.
But the UC system may not recognise this and may disqualify them.
This all depends on when your employer's pay day and assessment period for universal credit fall in relation to the calendar month, as well as how much you're earning through your job - for every £1 you earn, your universal credit payment is reduced by 63p.
Crucially, the DWP says this issue will not be sorted automatically - if you believe you've been affected, it says you should contact your work coach.
A DWP spokesman told Birmingham Live: "To ensure stability for claimants, we have adapted the system so that those receiving two payments in one assessment period can have the latter payment moved to another assessment period.
"When two monthly payments are received in one assessment period claimants should report it to their work coach."
Even this concession was forced upon the DWP by a court ruling last year after four mums took the department to court over the issue. Between them, the four mothers fell into rent arrears, defaulted on council tax, incurred bank overdraft charges, borrowed money and even became reliant on food banks to make ends meet.
The judge, Lady Justice Rose, found the secretary of state for work and pensions, Therese Coffey, had failed to ensure her department's systems could account for the 'non-banking day salary shift', and that this was unlawful.
