Surplus income in Universal Credit

If your earnings are high enough to receive no Universal Credit payment in a month, your Universal Credit claim is closed. You can use our Benefits Calculator to check whether your earnings in a month will mean you won’t receive any Universal Credit payment that month. If you earn more than £2,500 over the amount you can earn before your claim is stopped, you are said to have surplus earnings. 

If you restart your claim within six months, these surplus earnings will be taken into account as income. This may reduce the amount of Universal Credit you receive or perhaps mean that you can’t get any Universal Credit payment that month.

If your earnings go down, your surplus will decrease. Once your surplus has gone, you’ll be able to get a Universal Credit payment again.