First UC Review – My Experience
I'm in England.
Just wanted to post my experiences of my first UC Review as I know from frequenting the forums that they make the majority of us nervous! (And to be honest, reading through posts obsessively probably does little to help ease that as every situation is different and you tend to read worst-case/panicked posts – shoutout to the Mods who always try to give sound advice).
I've been on UC since May 2022 but always worked. Awarded LCWRA in March 2024 due to Cerebral Palsy and mobility but still work on contracts when I can get WFH roles or I freelance which gets reported to UC each month.
Timeline:
– I received the message about my first review on Tuesday, August 11th at 1.10pm.
– By 7pm same day, I uploaded everything (proof of tenancy, bank accounts for my four accounts, including savings + ISA and explained my small self employment went through my current account as opposed to a business one (for now). They wanted 4x months.
– Message in my journal 4 days later at 8.30am on Saturday, August 15th explaining my review call would be at 9.30am today, Wednesday, August 19th. (I got reminders by text and in my journal yesterday and confirmed I could take the call.)
The call:
The agent called at 9.30am on the dot and was lovely. Explained everything, said I could stop at any point to ask questions, then went through my housing and details in my current UC claim (and the health element which I said remained the same), I confirmed they were correct.
She then moved to the bank statements. She queried wage payments, small refunds that came in from places like Picturehouse, payments made to my credit cards (all transfers she could trace). Clarified my self employment (I had explained on my journal) and asked me to verify all my utility payments, including who I paid energy to (British Gas, quarterly - even I took ages to locate it on the statement).
She then asked if I'd any other income from crypto, housing or investments etc.
Then my self employment. She went through a recent declaration and my expenses. I had put 50% expenses only for things like phone and broadband rather than the full amount because I use both for business as well as personal use - she said this was the right thing to do and thanked me for doing it correctly as self employment aspects can often be so messy. I confirmed I would remain self employed going forwards, especially as it's my only income at the moment.
She then said all fine, that she'd need no other information and did I have any questions. I asked about the £6k every AP with wage deductions (for my own knowledge) which she explained but never even mentioned capital or current amounts in my bank accounts or asked why I bought things.
She told me the review was all great and that I'd receive two messages in my journal: one confirming what we spoke about and the next to say the review was complete with no changes to my UC.
At 10am on the dot I had the message in my journal saying the review was complete!
I was sick for the week with the nerves of it but it was so easy in the end (it probably helped that the agent was on the ball).
She said the same about my not being reviewed for 6 months minimum, but interestingly said they are trying to see if everyone can just be reviewed yearly as she felt the 6 month thing was crazy (likely due to how many they have to do).
The main thing I'd advise is submit everything right away: savings, ISA, current accounts and go through statements with a fine-tooth comb beforehand so you know what every transaction is (I knew she'd ask about the bigger ones but she looked at smaller refunds of say £15 too which surprised me). If you submit everything there's no back-and-forth before or after the call with anything extra needed and you'll be done within 30 minutes.
Mine was done in literally a week all in so I got lucky as I know some are waiting weeks or months.
Good luck everyone, the review calls really are fine!