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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

UC claim and temporary absence abroad during first assessment period

Tom B (WRAMAS)
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WRAMAS - Bristol City Council

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Total Posts: 454

Joined: 7 January 2013

Hi all,

I understand there is provision for temporary absences abroad but my reading of reg 11 is that this wouldn’t apply where a new claim is made and the absence abroad is within the first AP.

In the case I’m looking at, claimant claimed while in GB but is going to be absent for a couple of weeks; a week either side of the final day of the first AP. I’m expecting UC to decide that claimant is not eligible for UC as they do not meet the basic condition of being in GB. Am I understanding this correctly?

In the event that the absence abroad fell solely within the initial AP and they were back before the end of it, would reg 32 (C&P Regs) allow UC to treat this as an advance claim from a later date once they were back? Obviously it’s not ‘within a class for which SoS accepts advance claims’ but assuming the SoS was willing to do so, is there anything else blocking this?

Timothy Seaside
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Housing services - Arun District Council

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Total Posts: 539

Joined: 20 September 2018

If the absence fell entirely within the first AP then I think they should be entitled to UC because it is based on the situation at the end of the AP. So I don’t think you need to be thinking about advance claims, etc.

In your case though, the situation at the end of the first AP is that they are not in GB, but because they don’t have any entitlement they can’t rely on Reg 11 (which they will be able to do if they go away over the end of an AP once their entitlement is established).

This rang a bell, and I think you’ll get a better explanation here: https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/15516/