Help using UC Planner.

What to look for

• Use the most recent evidence available and keep the document date with the entry.
• Prefer actual paydays, assessment-period dates and figures from the same document.
• Treat a missing figure as unknown—not automatically as zero.

What this means in UC Planner

You can save a provisional answer and improve it later. Confirming each completed payday and UC result gives the planner stronger evidence for later forecasts.

Keep in mind: More evidence can improve a forecast, but it cannot remove uncertainty about future rules or reproduce an official DWP, HMRC, employer or pension-provider decision with certainty.

Official guidance: Payslips: employee rights · Manage your Universal Credit claim

What to look for

• Gross or total pay is pay before deductions.
• Taxable, NI-able and pensionable pay can differ because each follows different rules.
• Net pay is what remains after tax, National Insurance, pension and other payroll deductions.
• Employer pension contributions are not deductions from the employee’s pay.
• Year to date normally includes the payday printed on that payslip. Copy cumulative pay and tax from the same document.

What this means in UC Planner

Never put a year-to-date total into a current-payday field. If a label is unclear, leave the entry provisional and check with payroll or another payslip before confirming it.

If the document is unclear: a payslip proves the amounts printed on it, but its labels may not prove why payroll treated an amount in a particular way.

Official guidance: What should be on a payslip

What to look for

Find the actual payday and the dates the pay covers. A monthly arrangement may end on payday or on a different payroll cut-off date. For fortnightly or four-weekly pay, one exact real payday and the exact end date of the work covered are needed; “Friday” or “the 28th” is not enough.

What this means in UC Planner

Enter the employer’s normal reported payday and the work-period anchor separately. If a payday moves for a weekend or bank holiday, use the reported date supported by the payslip, employer or UC statement.

Uncertainty: UC Planner can place the date you enter, but only the employer and DWP records establish what was officially reported.

Official guidance: Universal Credit and earnings · Universal Credit assessment periods and payment dates

How the dates connect

Work date→Employer pay period→Reported payday→UC assessment period

What this means in UC Planner

Edit a single date for a one-off change. Use a usual weekly pattern from a chosen date when the change should continue. Saved entries remain editable, including ordinary hours, overtime hours and rates.

Check the evidence: shift rotas show planned work; payslips or payroll records are better evidence of what was actually paid.

Official guidance: Payslip hours and earnings · How pay frequency can affect Universal Credit

What to look for

Examples include 1257L, 1173L W1/M1, 1173LX, W1, M1, X and NONCUM. No marker normally means the code is cumulative. W1, M1, X or NONCUM means tax is calculated on the current week or month rather than total income so far.

What this means in UC Planner

Enter the code and its marker together. Starting a new job does not automatically make previous pay and tax zero: a P45 or payslip may carry earlier figures into the employment.

Uncertainty: the app can estimate from the code entered, but HMRC decides the authorised code and may change it.

Official guidance: Find your tax code · Emergency tax codes · What your tax code means

What to look for

One job may use the Personal Allowance while another uses BR, which taxes all pay from that job at the basic rate. BR does not by itself prove that tax has been overpaid. HMRC can amend codes during the year as information changes.

What this means in UC Planner

Keep each employment and tax code separate. Do not combine allowances between two claimants. A forecast refund or underpayment is an estimate only: UC Planner does not promise when it will happen or insert it into UC income or cash flow.

Check with HMRC: use the current-year service or HMRC app if income, employer details or codes look out of date.

Official guidance: Tax with more than one job · Check current-year Income Tax

What to look for

• Salary sacrifice: contractual salary is reduced and the employer pays the exchanged amount into the pension.
• Net pay: the employee contribution is taken before Income Tax.
• Relief at source: the contribution is taken after tax and the provider adds basic-rate relief.
• Contributions may be fixed, based on gross or pensionable pay, or use qualifying earnings. Employer contributions are separate from employee deductions.

What this means in UC Planner

Enter the method supported by the strongest evidence. One payslip may fit more than one formula, so candidate matches remain provisional.

If unsure: compare a second payslip with different pay, or ask payroll, the employer, scheme provider, enrolment letter or provider account. Do not upload an identifiable payslip to a third-party service.

Official guidance: Net pay and relief at source · Contributions and salary sacrifice

What to look for

Check the overtime rate or multiplier, hours, holiday amount and any bonus or commission. The payslip or payroll information—not the wording guessed from a bank payment—is the evidence for whether an addition is taxable or non-taxable.

What this means in UC Planner

Do not add an amount separately if it is already included in gross pay you entered. Use dated work entries for hours and a separate addition only where the payroll evidence supports it.

Uncertainty: an unfamiliar payslip label may need confirmation from payroll before its tax or pension treatment is selected.

Official guidance: Payslip earnings and deductions

What to look for

Union subscriptions, loans and similar items may be bank-only deductions. Maintenance deductions may be fixed or percentage based; use only the method supported by the payslip or written information.

What this means in UC Planner

Record the deduction so take-home pay can be represented, but do not mark it as changing tax, National Insurance, pension or UC earnings unless authoritative evidence establishes that treatment.

Do not infer from the label alone: ask payroll when a deduction’s basis is unclear.

Official guidance: Payslip deductions · Deductions from pay

What to look for

Save the assessment-period start and end dates and expected UC payment date shown in the account. Weekly, fortnightly and four-weekly pay cycles can create assessment periods containing extra paydays. A UC statement may show employment earnings, housing information, elements and deductions.

What this means in UC Planner

The planner places expected reported paydays into the saved periods and shows the resulting estimate. Enter the actual statement amount and earnings after the period completes.

Official result: DWP decides the statement and payment. The planner cannot guarantee the amount or how an unusual employer report will be handled.

Official guidance: Assessment periods and statements · Earnings and extra-payday periods

What to look for

Use the completed payslip, UC statement and relevant payroll or pension evidence. Missing evidence is not zero. If a confirmation was mistaken, reopen it and correct the entry.

What this means in UC Planner

The original historical forecast remains visible while the actual outcome sits beside it. Reconciliation can improve later cumulative-tax and supported pension evidence, but it does not invent a reason for a difference the documents cannot explain.

Keep evidence together: compare figures from the same payday or assessment period before deciding something is wrong.

Official guidance: Check current-year tax information · View and manage your UC account

Choose the right place

• Use this period only for a one-off change.
• Use ongoing when the change should continue in the live plan.
• Use Explore different plans to test an idea without changing the current plan.
• Create a saved planner for a complete independent setup—not merely another scenario.

What this means in UC Planner

A scenario must never alter the current plan. Review the destination shown before saving a change, especially where dates and work patterns continue into later periods.

Planning boundary: scenarios compare assumptions; they are not predictions or official decisions.

Related information: About the UC Planner project · Important app limitations

Cover or remove

• Name and address.
• National Insurance number.
• Payroll or employee number.
• Bank details.
• Employer identifiers and address where unnecessary.
• Barcodes, QR codes, document IDs and reference numbers.

What this means in UC Planner

The app performs planner calculations on the device. Following a website help link does not upload planner figures or payslips.

Do not send financial documents through the Organised & Co contact form. If you report an app problem, describe the screen and what happened without including personal or financial figures.

Privacy and support: How the current app handles information · Contact support safely