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Transitional Element for Tax Credit-only claimants
An assessment is an assessment is an assessment. It doesn’t happen in a particular order and it all happens on the last day of an AP. As everything happens at the same time, there is never a time at which there is either no carers element nor two carers elements. There is just an element, and the element hasn’t changed.
I hope you’re right and I would expect most FtT judges to take that view as well - but can also see DWP choosing this as a hill to die on and throwing resources behind a UT appeal
Well it’s becoming clear why DWP didn’t really answer in their TE guidance one of the question posed to them by the advice sector via the Stakeholders meetings, namely whether there will be an amnesty on recovering overpayments caused by the TE being incorrectly calculated initially, or DWP’s policy on calc of TE changing over time ... it must have been because they had every intention to recover those overpayments!
We’ve now seen two cases where DWP have decided there is an overpayment as a result of the TE being incorrectly calculated initially by DWP initially, and they are recovering the overpayments. In both the non-inclusion of the carer element in the calc of indicative UC appears to be one of the issues but not the only issue.
Also they seem to just send one letter telling saying there’s an overpayment and its going to be recovered, rather than three separate decisions revising entitlement, overpayment and then lawful recoverability/whether or not to recover. Which certainly gives the appearance of a blanket policy ...
That is worrying Sarah - I’ll send that up via the stakeholder inbox and see what they come back with…
In both the non-inclusion of the carer element in the calc of indicative UC appears to be one of the issues but not the only issue.
(Working abroad not at a ridiculous hour!)
Do you know if the claimants had reported that they were carers when they claimed UC? And if they’re getting Carer’s Allowance?
That guidance saying that the Carer Element would be included in the IUCA if the claimant declared themselves a carer did seem to come out of nowhere - and is completely inconsistent with their approach to the HCE etc. Seems possible that they decided to change their approach to carers and are now looking for overpayments? From memory they said they weren’t going to change their approach to the HCE so no overpayments would be recovered for that but didn’t mention other changes in policy…
Rachel, they had declared they were carers and were in receipt of CA. In one case, the DWP recalculated the TE within a month, in the other case it has taken a good number of months and so the OP is larger.
CPAG has heard various reports about managed migration claimants struggling to get adequate explanations of the transtional element calculation. A tool for requesting an explanation, and an associated survey, can be found on this page under ‘transitional element’: https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/tools-templates/migration-universal-credit-tools-and-templates
If you’ve helped a claimant to request a breakdown of their managed migration transitional element then please complete the survey - thanks.
This FOI response to a request for details of its approach to, and number of, challenges of the transitional element calculation suggests that it is not routinely monitoring the process for errors (or to help it test and learn?)-
‘... we have estimated that the cost of meeting your request would exceed the cost limit of £600 specified in the [FOI Fees Regulations] .... the Department is not therefore obliged to comply with your request and we will not be processing it further. The reason being, we do not keep a record of how many claimants are specifically querying the amount of Transitional Protection they have been awarded.
Overall, within Dispute Resolution Service we would not hold that detail in regard to Mandatory Reconsiderations. The cost to obtaining this information would be disproportionate to the ask.’
More: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/transitional_element_errors#outgoing-1662395