HMRC Website: users complain of Universal Credit website not functioning ahead of Christmas bonus payment schedule

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Users first began complaining about the HMRC website not working on Tuesday evening GMT

Users of the HMRC’s Universal Credit portal found themselves having difficulty navigating the website on Tuesday evening. Downdetector, which reports if websites or mobile operators have technical problems, has reported a spike in issues around the HMRC website over the past 24 hours.

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Reports suggest that the issue with the Universal Credit website stems from users unable to log in awaiting a passcode to be sent to their mobile phone, while others who have logged on have said that they received a service unavailable message this morning. Access to the Universal Credit system requires two-factor authentication with a text message passcode submitted to the recipient.

For many, that passcode system was not sending out the form of authentication within the 15 minute allocated time, while for others it took an entire day to receive the then out of date passcode to log in. However,when Londonworld personally tried to log into the system at 7:15am today, both the passcode system and the payments scheduled page were working, despite some lagging with page load times.

The issues with the HMRC website couldn’t have come at a more pivotal time for benefit claimants, with December seeing many receive additional assistance from the government alongside ensuring when their payment dates will occur during December.

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Advice given by other users of Downdetector have suggested that users experiencing difficulties can look at clearing their cache on the desktop or mobile phone device (Android or iOS) before logging in again or if they have access to that section of the website to leave a note in their work journal for their coach.

The issues the HMRC website is experiencing will not have any direct impact on benefit payments however, much akin to the news that striking workers will also not affect the schedule for benefit payments during December.

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