Non-payment of child element for all children when verification for 1 child pending

Hi all

CPAG are looking for examples of claimants not receiving the child element for any of their children (including those who have been already successfully verified) while they are in the process of verifying/providing evidence for 1 of the children they are responsible for. This might happen at the start of a claim, but also mid-award when a child joins the household or if an older child’s education status needs verifying.

(See page 83 of CPAG’s You Reap What You Code: Universal credit, digitalisation and the rule of law report for examples of when we have seen this previously https://cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/policypost/You_Reap_What_You_Code.pdf)

We are aware this is due to a built in feature of the UC digital system, rather than any deliberate policy choice and are looking to challenge it. This can have a knock-on effect on the housing costs element as the verified children and not counted for those purposes either, pending the verification of 1 child.

We are interested to hear of any examples you have seen of this, whether current or historic - please feel free to post on here, message me directly on here, or contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Thanks,
Claire