After you submit your claim

The Department may still need to verify some of the information you provided in your claim. You could be asked to provide documentation to prove certain aspects of your circumstances. You may be asked for further information about:

• income from work, an insurance policy, pensions or annuities
• savings, investments and assets
• other benefits you are receiving, including from other countries
• housing costs (including service charges, but not rates)
• people who live in your home
• childcare costs, if you or your partner are working

If you have agreed to manage your claim online, it is a good idea to check your online Journal and To-do list regularly to see whether there is any further information you need to provide/

If you are unable to manage your claim digitally, Universal Credit (UC) staff will contact you either by telephone or in writing if they have further questions. Try to respond promptly to any requests, as missing information could lead to delays in all or part of your first UC payment being issued.

People migrating to UC from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) should not need to provide further evidence about their health condition. This is because UC will accept the Work Capability Assessment decision that has been made by ESA. As a result, you will not be required to submit medical evidence, including Fit Notes, and you will be entitled to an additional health element, if appropriate, from the beginning of your claim.

Your will not receive your first payment of Universal Credit (UC) until after the end of the first Assessment Period (AP), which is one calendar month from the date you make your claim. The reason for this is that UC is calculated on a monthly cycle, so the Department needs to wait until the end of the first AP to establish your entitlement.

Due to the differences with legacy benefits, which were mostly paid every two weeks, the Department has introduced extra financial support to help new UC claimants to manage the five-week wait. Some of the extra financial support does not have to be repaid, but others are loans that need to be paid back directly from your future UC payments. We would strongly advise you think carefully before accepting a loan, and to speak to an adviser about how it will impact your benefit entitlement.

More information about financial support while waiting for your first UC payment is at nidirect:

Help while waiting for a Universal Credit payment

Two-week run-on

Anyone moving from legacy benefits to UC will receive an extra payment of their legacy benefits two weeks after making their UC claim. This payment does not affect entitlement to UC in any way.

Run-on payments are made to the person who normally receives the benefit. For ESA, Jobseeker’s Allowance or Income Support that is almost always the claimant themselves, or their partner. For Housing Benefit, it is usually the landlord.

You don’t need to do anything to receive the run-on payment, as it will be issued automatically by the office that normally pays that benefit.

New Claims Grant

If you are still struggling to meet your living costs after you have received your two-week run-on payment, you can make a claim for a Universal Credit New Claims Grant from the Finance Support Service.

Note everyone can get a New Claims Grant. To be eligible you must:

• be experiencing an extreme or exceptional situation or in a crisis which puts your own or your immediate family’s health, safety or well-being at significant risk.
• not have received any other government grant for living expenses in the past 12 months.
• have a total annual income after deductions of no more than £28,571.40.
• not have other resources, such as income or savings, which could cover your living costs.

It is generally a good idea to provide details of specific living costs, or at least to show how existing resources need to be used to cover specific bills. Some living costs cannot be covered by a New Claims Grant, so get in touch for independent advice before making a claim.

A claim for a Universal Credit New Claims Grant can be made online or by phone through the Finance Support Service. Awards are made at the discretion of the Finance Support Service, and as such are not guaranteed. In addition, you will not be considered for a New Claims Grant until after you have received the two-week run-on.

If they reject an application for a New Claims Grant, the Finance Support Service will always consider whether a loan can be offered via Discretionary Support instead. As we explain below, this will have to be paid back.

There is more information about the New Claims Grant at nidirect:

Universal Credit New Claims Grant

Discretionary Support

In addition to the New Claims Grant, people in Northern Ireland can also access help to cover living costs or replace essential household items through Discretionary Support. This can be provided either as a non-repayable grant or a loan, depending on the circumstances.

Eligibility criteria for Discretionary Support are the same as for the New Claims Grant, although the person claiming does not need to have claimed UC. There are also caps on the number of loans and grants a person can receive, and on the level of debt they can incur.

Discretionary Support can help with:

• short-term living expenses (for example to buy food)
• the cost of buying, repairing or replacing basic household items (for example a cooker)
• travel expenses (in limited circumstances)
• rent you have to pay in advance to a landlord other than the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE)

Claims can be made online or over the phone, and local advice services can support people to make their claim.

There is more information about Discretionary Support at nidirect:

Discretionary Support

UC Advance

All UC claimants are given access to an Advance payment that they can take at any time during the five-week wait. However, we would strongly advise you to only consider accepting an Advance as an absolute last resort, as you will have to pay it back through your benefit.

Recovery of Advances are given a high priority by the Department’s Debt Management Service and must be repaid within 24 months. This means your UC payments will be reduced to recover the Advance.

We would urge anyone considering accepting an Advance to seek independent advice first to make sure that they have investigated all other alternatives.

More information about the Universal Credit Advance Loan is provided at nidirect:

Help while waiting for a Universal Credit payment

In addition to extra financial support to help you manage the five-week wait, there are some additional benefits linked to Universal Credit (UC) that you might need to claim when you migrate from your legacy benefits. As these benefits are linked to your UC award, we describe these as passported benefits – you generally cannot claim these unless you are also entitled to UC, or one of the legacy benefits UC is replacing.

Aside from the link to your UC award, rules for these benefits can be quite different. Therefore, we would encourage you to speak to an adviser about whether you will continue to be entitled and what, if any, action you need to take to maximise your income following migration to UC. You can get in touch on 0800 915 4604 or by sending an email to [email protected].

Rate Rebate

Before the introduction of UC, financial support to help with the cost of rates was provided through Housing Benefit. However, because UC does not cover rate relief claimants now need to apply separately to Land & Property Services (LPS) for Rate Rebate.

If you (or your landlord) are liable for payment of rates to LPS you should make a separate claim for Rate Rebate at the same time as you claim UC. Any relief will be credited directly to the rate account of the property that you occupy.

Entitlement to Rate Rebate is based on your entitlement to UC, and the Department for Communities will share details about your UC award with LPS to help them establish how much rate relief you will get. Generally, if you are entitled to UC you should get the full amount of relief through Rate Rebate, but there are exceptions, so if that is not the case get in touch on 0800 915 4604 or send an email to [email protected].

More information about Rate Rebate is available at nidirect:

Rate Rebate Scheme for people on Universal Credit

Help with Health Costs

People who receive Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) are automatically entitled to free HS dental treatment, free sight tests, vouchers towards the cost of glasses or contact lenses and help with the costs of travel for medical or dental treatment.

Originally, UC claimants did not have automatic entitlement to Help with Health Costs, so people migrating from the benefits above lost their automatic entitlement and needed to make a claim through the low income scheme using Form HC1.

However, the Department of Health recently announced that from 1 December 2025 it will introduce automatic passporting to Help with Health Costs for certain people on UC. Automatic passporting will apply to those people on UC with either:

• Take-home pay of £435 or less in their last Universal Credit assessment period, or
• Take-home pay of £935 or less in their last Universal Credit assessment period, if their Universal Credit includes a payment for a child, or they have limited capability for work, or limited capability for work and work-related activity.

Those people on UC whose earnings are above the thresholds will still need to claim using Form HC1. In addition, reimbursement of costs incurred before 1 December 2025 will also require a claim.

There is more information about Help with Help Costs and how to claim, if appropriate, at nidirect:

Help with health costs

Free School Meals and Uniform Grants

Like Help with Health Costs, entitlement to Free School Meals and Uniform Grants is restricted to those people on UC with earnings below a certain threshold. To be entitled to Free School Meals and Uniform Grants a person on UC must have annual net household earnings of £15,390 or less.

Claims for Free School Meals and Uniform Grants are made online. However, support is available from the Education Authority either by phone or email. Household earnings are verified using your UC Claimant Statement, which is accessible via the online journal or by contacting the UC Service Centre. The copy must show your name and address, dates and amounts of UC payments, all entitlements and all deductions.

If you have already made an application for the current school year before you move to UC you will not have to reapply. However, the Education Authority have told us that UC claimants entitled to Free School Meals should let them know if their monthly earnings are more than £1,282.50 in any two consecutive months.

Detailed information about Free School Meals and Uniform Grants, including answers to frequently asked questions and video guides, is available from the Education Authority website:

Free School Meals / Uniform Grants

Welfare Supplementary Payments

UC is part of a wider package of reform that was introduced nationally from 2012, and which also included the introduction of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and two additional changes that restricted the amount of benefit claimants could receive: the Bedroom Tax and the Benefit Cap.

To address the impact of these changes, the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive agreed to a mitigations package to protect claimants. As a result, those people in Northern Ireland whose Housing Benefit or UC is reduced because of these policies are entitled to a Welfare Supplementary Payment (WSP), which makes up the shortfall.

You may not be aware that you are receiving a WSP, as you do not need to make a claim – entitlement is worked out directly by the Department for Communities (DfC). In addition, the vast majority of WSPs relating to the Bedroom Tax and the Benefit Cap cover a shortfall in housing costs. As a result, they are usually paid directly to landlords.

Due to the way these additional payments are calculated and paid you should not notice any change following your migration to UC. However, if your landlord contacts you about a shortfall in housing costs or you notice payments you receive directly have stopped get in touch on 0800 915 4604 or send an email to [email protected] and we will help you to chase this up with DfC.

You can also contact the Welfare Supplementary Payments team at DfC directly to check your entitlement:

Welfare Supplementary Payments Team

More information about WSPs is available at nidirect:

Support if you're affected by welfare changes

Discretionary Housing Payments

For some people living in private-rented accommodation, support with housing costs through UC will not cover all of their rent charge. This is due to Local Housing Allowance, which caps the rent that is paid to private landlords by Housing Benefit and UC.

If you live in private-rented accommodation and there is a difference between the rent charged by your landlord and the rent used to calculate your housing costs you may be able to apply to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) for a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP).

If you are already receiving a DHP before you make a claim for UC, you will need to make a new application for a DHP. NIHE will tell you about this when your Housing Benefit award ends. Contact your local Housing Benefit Unit if you need to check your existing entitlement.

In principle, anyone receiving UC housing costs can apply for a DHP. NIHE consider entitlement to a DHP on a case-by-case basis. However, the payment will only cover a shortfall that is due to the discrepancy between the Local Housing Allowance and your contractual rent. Shortfalls due to deductions from your UC award or which are protected by other schemes will not be covered.

NIHE provide a number of ways to apply for DHPs, including an online form. You can also contact your local Housing Benefit Unit by phone, email or in writing. Help with making a claim can be provided by your local advice centre.

Further details about Discretionary Housing Payments are available on the NIHE website:

More help with paying your housing costs