How will your earnings impact your universal credit?

You can use our handy calculator to work out the deductions for earnings which will help
you see how different earnings impact on your UC award.

If the calculators do not automatically load then please click the blue icons.
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Please note that if you have housing benefit, then please select you have housing element.
Please note that if you have housing benefit, then please select you have housing element.

so how do they work out the deduction

If you are already on Universal Credit then you will already know that each and every assessment period, UC receive information about your earnings and make a relevant deduction.

This means every assessment period, the deduction for take home pay can be higher or lower, depending on how many hours you worked or frequency of pay.  For example; paid weekly you may have had 4 or 5 wages fall into your assessment period or if paid 4 weekly then 1 or 2 wages.  Please see our info on different earnings patterns.

You can view your assessment period on the homepage of your online account.  Work out what wages you were paid after tax, national insurance and pension contribution, between those dates.  That is the figure that UC will use to work out the deduction for wages.
If you have been claiming Universal Credit and have previous breakdown, you can see what your maximum Universal Credit award is before deductions on your last payment breakdown.

​Remember to allow for -  deductions for other income and debts and advances.