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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

UC and proving free school meal eligibility

clive
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Newcastle Council Welfare Rights

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Hello

Can someone prove they have eligibility to UC in order to receive FSM whilst waiting for their UC claim to be decided? It means they may have to wait 5 or 6 or more weeks before LA’s get official notification of UC. Apparently, free school meals cannot be backdated.

Clutching at straws -  I wonder if is there anything on the UC online portal to show they are entitled before the decision?

To make it worse, there’s the 7 waiting days of NO entitlement to UC!

Thank you

Clive

SarahJBatty
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Money Adviser, Thirteen, Middlesbrough

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I’ve only seen a couple of online accounts so far, Clive, but it seemed from the one I saw yesterday that you can see the ‘monthly assessment period’ dates, and you can see payment date expected in this format ‘your next payment is due in 17 days’.  This indicates there is a claim.

There was no ‘award’ screen in this case which showed the calculation of UC, even with the allowances and elements which make up Max UC, because this cannot be known until the end of the assessment period when all changes of circs have been reported, and income is known.

I suppose no-one has an ongoing ‘entitlement’ to UC do they?  You are only entitled to an award of UC for each ‘assessment period’ at a time.  How does this fit in with the passporting to free school meals?

I am told that in Full Service, the jobcentre can issue a letter saying that a claim for UC has been made, which could serve in that early month as ID to assist in opening a bank account.  I haven’t seen a sample letter yet though.

Tom Messere
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Big Book of Benefits

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This has been a problem in both Live Service and Full Service areas.  Indeed no ongoing award as it’s only as good as your next monthly assessment, but then I guess legacy benefits are weekly and tax credits do assessment periods their way :-)

Not played with a Full Service UC claim yet, but do people get some initial forecast at the end of their claim as after Live Service claims?  It will though be covered in caveats, so any screengrab may not be that impressive to schools more used to definitive entitlement letters under legacy benefits.

Frustrating,  as after all the computer knows straightaway what your UC entitlement will be and is much faster than legacy benefits at telling you,  barring unforeseen changes in information or UC messing up the housing costs. After all, the rest of the process is mainly about getting UC to understand housing liability and trying not to be misled into signing a flexible Claimant Commitment that seems to set like rock cakes, rather than any new info on financial circumstances

I know Sam at Warrington CAB reported -  at a NAWRA a while back - that she had managed to persuade UC Service Centres to issue some kind of more official looking letter - in their early Live Service area - that did the trick.

Something to raise with education in policy discussions? In terms of re-thinking the evidence they require - perhaps going with any online prediction ?  And post April can they slip seconds / a doggy bag to those facing the “starvation of the third born” ,  as parents rob Peter to feed Paul ...

[ Edited: 14 Mar 2017 at 02:26 am by Tom Messere ]
Alice SF
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Welfare Benefit & Debt Advisor, Hounslow Foodbank Project, Staying First London

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No forecast I’m afraid Tom.  Claimants need to wait until the day of first payment to see how much they have been awarded.  You can call up to 3 days prior to the expected payment date and they may give you the info but there would be no physical evidence e.g. screenshot etc.  This process of not knowing until day of payment will continue throughout the course of the claim as well.

I’ve had a few clients contact me in shock when an unexpected deduction has been made or increased that they had not made aware of prior to payment day.

J Bathie
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Family Finance Adviser, Money Advice Unit, Herts CC

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Related: the issue of not being able to demonstrate UC entitlement for the next period after your last UC payday delays processing of other claims too that are dependent on receipt of a qualifying benefit.

Eg I had a pregnant woman’s SSMG application delayed as it was received one day after the last payment of UC.  DWP had to diairise it until the end of the assessment period before they could determine entitlement to make payment.

Advice NI
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Head of policy - Advice NI

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Hi all, in NI there is a consultation just out on how to treat UC + earnings re Free School Meals (FSM), available here ... https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/consultations/proposed-changes-eligibility-criteria-free-school-meals-and-uniform-grants ... talking about passporting UC claims with associated earnings threshold of £14,000 (net). How does this compare with approach in GB?

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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Information and advice resources - Age UK

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As far as I am aware, the simple fact of receving UC is sufficient to passport someone

https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals

Advice NI
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Not sure blanket passport will work, for example in our consultation it states that the Dept is minded to go with a net earnings threshold of £14,000 (meaning an overall positive impact of +2,000 children receiving FSMs); blanket passport of all UC claims estimated to bring additional 54,000 children into FSM entitlement and deemed to be too expensive.

Jon (CANY)
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Welfare benefits - Craven CAB, North Yorkshire

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See the last 2 posts in this thread, it seems there has been no movement for England on this at all (unless I totally missed the consultation?):
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/9239/#41577

It’s a difficult issue, having a simple threshold for free school meals can totally undermine the idea of a continuous work incentive as earnings increase, e.g. see the graph here:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-citizens-advice-works/media/press-releases/free-school-meals-policy-means-low-income-families-could-lose-money-for-working-extra-hours/