× Search rightsnet
Search options

Where

Benefit

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

From

to

Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Other benefit issues  →  Thread

Cost of Living payments

 1 2 > 

ElaineH
forum member

Welfare Benefits Caseworker, Karbon Homes

Send message

Total Posts: 27

Joined: 12 February 2018

Hi,
a couple of queries - not sure if this is a thing or not but:
I have 2 people, one who gets new style ESA + UC for housing costs (which are paid direct to landlord) who has not received the £326 payment yet (yes gov.uk states payments being made from 14.07.22 so there is time yet) - but she is wondering if she meets criteria to be paid the COL payments.
My immediate thought is yes she does , be patient.

However, I’ve just had another person come to me who has been told he won’t get COL payment,  as HCE is paid direct to landlord and he gets no net UC paid to him

Any thoughts ? I’m hoping this is just a coincidence of 2 people with crossed wires, but also find myself wondering…

Many thanks,

Elaine

HB Anorak
forum member

Benefits consultant/trainer - hbanorak.co.uk, East London

Send message

Total Posts: 2895

Joined: 12 March 2013

Oh good grief.  From Section 2 of the Social Security (Additional Payments) Act 2022:

(1) A person has a qualifying entitlement to a social security benefit in respect of a qualifying day if—
(a) in respect of universal credit, the person is entitled to a payment of at least 1p in respect of an assessment period ending during the period of one month ending with the qualifying day;

Even if some or all of the claimant’s UC entitlement is being paid at DWP’s discretion to a third party, it is the claimant who is “entitled to” the payment, not the third party.  The only person who can be “entitled to” UC is the claimant who satisfies s3 of the WRA 2012.  The Claims and Payments Regs refer to UC being paid to another person “on the claimant’s behalf”.  If UC staff are saying that a claimant is not entitled to payments made to third parties on his/her behalf, they are definitely wrong.

ElaineH
forum member

Welfare Benefits Caseworker, Karbon Homes

Send message

Total Posts: 27

Joined: 12 February 2018

Thank you for update…..I’m hoping this is just a little one off - one person lives in County Durham and one in Northumberland so not a local issue, poss a regional issue or maybe just a strange little coincidence.

Many thanks,

Elaine

Va1der
forum member

Welfare Rights Officer with SWAMP Glasgow

Send message

Total Posts: 706

Joined: 7 May 2019

The process is automated so, unless they’ve mucked up the IT, this shouldn’t be a problem. Who ultimately gets the money, whether that’s claimants, landlords or creditors, shouldn’t matter to the computer.

I can imagine your clients have asked their WC etc, who has then misadvised them. I’d still expect them to get the payment by the end of the month.

DWP’s own guidance isn’t very helpful. On the stakeholder toolkit they’ve lumped this circumstance in with ‘nil awards’, where people indeed wouldn’t be entitled if earnings take the whole award to nil.

Universal Credit ‘nil awards’
You will not be eligible for the Cost of Living Payment if your earnings reduced your Universal Credit to £0 for the qualifying assessment period. This is sometimes called a ‘nil award’. If money has also been taken off for other reasons (such as payments of rent to your landlord or for money that you owe), you might still be eligible.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment

bigbill
forum member

Dumfries Welfare Rights

Send message

Total Posts: 127

Joined: 24 June 2010

Have a couple who have been refused the COL payment as hubby has old style CBESA topped up with IBESA so Work Coach at DWP says not entitled?

On link above it says this.

“You will not get a payment if you get New Style Employment and Support Allowance, contributory Employment and Support Allowance, or New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance, unless you get Universal Credit.”

Obviously no UC paid but IBESA is so also on above link it says.

“To get the first Cost of Living Payment of £326, you must have been entitled to a payment (or later found to be entitled to a payment) of income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support or Pension Credit for any day in the period 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022.”

Which they did so thought it obvious they should get it but refused?

Asked him to use link to report missing payment and see what happens.

Elliot Kent
forum member

Shelter

Send message

Total Posts: 3117

Joined: 14 July 2014

Baffling.

There should be nothing more to this exercise than making a list of people in receipt of the relevant benefits at the relevant dates and making the appropriate payments to them. Whilst a human can get confused about the difference between cESA, irESA and nsESA, the computer programme which figures out the list should be able to handle it.

For your client to have been excluded from the list (as opposed to his payment just running late), would impliedly have required somebody (their work coach or whoever) to have manually removed them from the list on the basis of their own misconceptions about how ESA works.

Ianb
forum member

Macmillan benefits team, Citizens Advice Bristol

Send message

Total Posts: 958

Joined: 24 November 2017

I wouldn’t place any reliance on the knowledge of a Work Coach in this matter. The legislation is simple.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/38/contents/enacted
Qualifying entitlements

(1) A person has a qualifying entitlement to a social security benefit in respect of a qualifying day if—

(b) in respect of ..an income-related employment and support allowance ..the person is entitled to a payment of at least 1p in respect of any day during the period of one month ending with the qualifying day.
—-
I consider the guidance paragraph you referred to to be poorly written which I did report to DWP but which they unfortunately haven’t amended (I suspect reports only look at technical issues rather than content).

[ Edited: 1 Aug 2022 at 08:50 pm by Ianb ]
Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

Va1der
forum member

Welfare Rights Officer with SWAMP Glasgow

Send message

Total Posts: 706

Joined: 7 May 2019

Elliot Kent - 01 August 2022 06:35 PM

For your client to have been excluded from the list (as opposed to his payment just running late), would impliedly have required somebody (their work coach or whoever) to have manually removed them from the list on the basis of their own misconceptions about how ESA works.

I don’t see why they would give WCs, or any of their day to day staff access to amend such a list. If there was a need for it, such as where DWP have retrospectively removed entitlement to benefit between the relevant dates AFTER the computer has targeted that client for a CLP payment I can see why a DM etc might have access to do so, but that’s a pretty limited circumstance.

DWP have shoddy IT design at the best of days, so wonder if there’ll be groups, such as cb+ib claimants that are routinely missed by the algorithm.

 

 

R2D2
forum member

Welfare rights - Financial Inclusion and Advice Service, Suffolk County Council

Send message

Total Posts: 21

Joined: 22 June 2010

Hi,
I’ve just come across a case where someone claiming universal credit has been refused a cost of living payment because a sanction resulted in no universal credit during his assessment period running from 27th March to 26th April. I’m still gathering information about this but it seems the DWP have treated it as a ‘nil award’.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

R2D2 - 02 September 2022 04:13 PM

Hi,
I’ve just come across a case where someone claiming universal credit has been refused a cost of living payment because a sanction resulted in no universal credit during his assessment period running from 27th March to 26th April. I’m still gathering information about this but it seems the DWP have treated it as a ‘nil award’.

Were they entitled to a payment in the next AIP? The window is up to 25 May.

R2D2
forum member

Welfare rights - Financial Inclusion and Advice Service, Suffolk County Council

Send message

Total Posts: 21

Joined: 22 June 2010

Hi Paul,

After a further sanction deduction and a deduction for an advance he received £251.19 in his next assessment period from 27.04.22 to 26.05.22. Isn’t this outside the window as he didn’t receive at least 1p before 25th May (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/38/section/2/enacted)?

As an update I’ve just received this from our local Partnership Manager:

“With regards to this case – as far as the award of the cost of living payment: - to get the first Cost of Living Payment of £326, you must have been entitled to a payment (or later found to be entitled to a payment) of either:

• Universal Credit for an assessment period that ended in the period 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022, or
• income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support or Pension Credit for any day in the period 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022.

Eligibility for a Cost of Living payment is based on entitlement to a qualifying benefit, during the qualifying period.
There is no right of appeal against the eligibility criteria for Cost of Living payments. However, the customer can request a Mandatory Reconsideration regarding the sanction and if he subsequently is entitled during the relevant period, then the cost of living payment can be made.

As you state, for the relevant period this customer had a nil award due to sanctions.

I can confirm that if the sanction reduces your UC to nil, you will not be entitled to a cost of living payment. I have discussed the case with his work coach who has explained this to the customer.

Here is the link:

Cost of Living Payment - GOV.UK (http://www.gov.uk) – this explains how it works.

As you can appreciate I cannot comment on the policy intent, but I do agree he has been unfortunate with the way the dates have fallen.”

Va1der
forum member

Welfare Rights Officer with SWAMP Glasgow

Send message

Total Posts: 706

Joined: 7 May 2019

Just to check: Do they have any other deductions from their UC, such as for rent or debt repayments?

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

R2D2 - 07 September 2022 09:20 AM

Hi Paul,

After a further sanction deduction and a deduction for an advance he received £251.19 in his next assessment period from 27.04.22 to 26.05.22. Isn’t this outside the window as he didn’t receive at least 1p before 25th May (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/38/section/2/enacted)?

Yes, you’re right I think, I’d not appreciated the stipulation that the AIP needed to have ended before 25 May.

R2D2
forum member

Welfare rights - Financial Inclusion and Advice Service, Suffolk County Council

Send message

Total Posts: 21

Joined: 22 June 2010

So it looks like the only remedy is to overturn the sanction decision? 
A neat way of making sanctions even more disproportionately punitive!
Something worth challenging / campaigning against - CPAG maybe?

(Just to confirm - there were no other deductions during the relevant assessment period - no deduction for the advance that month and housing costs for supported accommodation covered by HB.  All dates and circumstances very much against the claimant)

CA Adviser
forum member

Citizens Advice Calderdale, West Yorkshire

Send message

Total Posts: 168

Joined: 27 September 2011

bigbill - 01 August 2022 05:29 PM

Have a couple who have been refused the COL payment as hubby has old style CBESA topped up with IBESA so Work Coach at DWP says not entitled?

On link above it says this.

“You will not get a payment if you get New Style Employment and Support Allowance, contributory Employment and Support Allowance, or New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance, unless you get Universal Credit.”

Obviously no UC paid but IBESA is so also on above link it says.

“To get the first Cost of Living Payment of £326, you must have been entitled to a payment (or later found to be entitled to a payment) of income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support or Pension Credit for any day in the period 26 April 2022 to 25 May 2022.”

Which they did so thought it obvious they should get it but refused?

Asked him to use link to report missing payment and see what happens.

Saw a post online from a claimant in receipt of cbESA and irESA, who stated that upon querying their missing cost of living payment, they were told by ESA that they did not qualify because contribution-based ESA is their main benefit and they are not in receipt of UC. Other people agreed that they had also been told this. Can this be true?