If you don’t have enough to live on while you wait for your first UC payment or you need help to pay for emergency costs you may be eligible for a UC advance or a Budgeting Loan.
Universal Credit Advances
When you first make a claim for UC you will have to wait around five weeks for your first payment.
If you don’t have enough to live on while you wait for your first payment, for example, if you can’t afford to pay your rent or buy food, you may be able to get an advance of your first UC payment.
The most you can get as an advance is the amount of your first estimated payment.
The Advance Payment is a loan which you have to pay back from your UC payments. You can choose how many months you require to pay back the advance up to a maximum of 12 months.
Full details of Universal Credit Advances are available from GOV.UK.
Further information is available at the following links:
Budgeting Advance
You can also apply for a Budgeting Advance to help pay for emergency household costs (for example buying a new cooker or for help getting a job or staying in work).
A Budgeting Advance is a loan, and you’ll need to repay it through your regular UCt payments or by other means.
You will normally have to repay the loan within 2 years (104 weeks) and if you stop getting benefits, you will have to arrange another way to repay.
Full details of Budgeting Advance are available from GOV.UK.
Interest on Advances
You do not pay any interest on a Universal Credit Advance or on a Budgeting Advance - the total amount you pay back is the same as the amount of the advance.
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