There is a minimum 5 week waiting period before your first Universal Credit payment, this is because your income is assessed monthly, starting from the day you made the claim. This is known as the assessment period and once this has ended your first payment will be issued within 7 days. Contact our advice line to discuss help available while waiting for your first payment.

For us to provide the best advice possible, we would need to know details of all your circumstances. When contacting us to discuss this you will need to provide details of who lives in your household including information of employment such as working hours and earnings and amount of any child care costs if you have them. Details of any benefits currently in receipt such as what they are and amount you receive. Information on your housing status and figures of any rates, rent or other payments made for this. Without this you may have to get back in touch at another time.

If you have been receiving Statutory Maternity Pay only then this will not have to be repaid should you choose not to return to work. Alternatively, if you also received Contractual Maternity Pay this may have to be repaid to your employer and will depend on the terms and conditions in your contract of employment. You will still have to give your employer the correct notice period, and this can be done during your maternity leave period, meaning you do not have to go into work.

All employees are entitled to receive an itemised pay slip and these must contain information on amount of wage before deductions, net wage amounts, individual amounts of any deductions for pensions, trade unions, tax paid and NI paid. If your employer has not provided these, you should first try speaking to them to resolve the issue. If after this you have still not received a pay slip you should get in touch with one of our advisers to discuss further action and whether there is any underlying reasons for not receiving payslips.

You can request a copy of your credit report from each of these three credit reference agencies; Experian, Equifax and Callcredit. You have a statutory right to get access to these for a fee of £2 each. Once you receive your reports, these should be checked for any mistakes as this could be impacting your credit rating. Get in touch with one of our specialist debt advisers if you find any mistakes or need help requesting your reports.

If you have went as guarantor on a loan, this means you have agreed to make repayments if the person who took out the loan fails to do so. You are bound by the terms of the guarantee you have given. Your obligations and whether the guarantee is enforceable will depend on the terms of the agreement you have signed. You should speak to one of our specialist debt advisers for further help with this.

If your car was damaged while at their garage, you should negotiate for them to pay for the repair of the damage. The minimum they must offer you is the cost of the repair and you should point out any damage as soon as possible. If the garage refuses to cover the costs, you may be able to claim on an insurance policy however this could end your no claims bonus. Contact us to discuss further options if the garage is refusing to pay and you do not want to claim on your insurance.

Your provider must give at least 30 days’ notice of any price increase to your contract and you have a legal right to cancel within this time frame without having to pay any cancellation fee. However, you will not be able to cancel without a fee if you signed up to the contract before 23 January 2014 or you were told at the start of the contract that there would be a price increase, for example if you have an 18-month contract but were given 6 months at a discounted rate.

If you are the child of the tenant who has died, you can succeed their tenancy providing you have lived with them for the past 12 months up to the date of death. However, in some circumstances the landlord can refuse to allow you to take on the tenancy, for example if the tenant had already inherited the property from someone else. If you need further details on this you should get in touch with our advisers.

If you paid a security deposit on or after 1 April 2013 then your landlord had a legal responsibility to protect this with an authorised scheme run by one of three companies approved by Department for Communities. You should have received information on which scheme was used within 28 days of paying the deposit. If your landlord is refusing to return your deposit then you should follow your schemes dispute procedures. Alternatively, if your landlord hasn’t protected your deposit you should speak to one of our advisers to discuss further action you can take.

If the tenancy is in your ex partners name, they are responsible for paying the rent but if they move out you may be able to take over paying the rent. This will depend on the tenancy agreement. You could discuss having the tenancy transferred into your name if the landlord agrees. You can contact one of our advisers to discuss your rights in further detail and other options open to you.

If you are not married when registering a birth, the mother can register the birth alone, however the father’s details cannot be recorded unless he is also there to sign the registration or a declaration of paternity is produced by the mother – this also ensures the unmarried father acquires parental responsibility for children born on or after 15 April 2002.