Evelyn D

I did change from legacy benefits in 2019 and my experience was that I really felt that the journal was quite helpful. The time lag between one benefit to another was really poor, had to wait quite a long time, nearly two months. And also they had overpaid me in that time and without even discussing it with me, they started to take out the overpayment. So I didn't even know I'd overpaid. They'd overpaid me and they started to take the money out really quickly. As soon as I'd got my first Universal Credit payment, it was really low and really the overpayment wasn't my fault. It was because they'd moved me over to Universal Credit, but then still paid me that month and then I had to wait for that period of time. It's about eight weeks, I think. And unfortunately, that overpayment had carried me across, but then I had to pay it back and there was just no discussion about it. I felt like the communication was really poor. But I do really like the online journal and I do feel that they're quite responsive in there. But I just felt like it was less money and I just had to get my head down because all of a sudden I was in a debt that I didn't even know I had and through no fault of my own. So it felt a bit messy, really, to be honest. But the outcome of having the journal definitely feels easier.