UC and cbESA confusion!!

I have a client who moved to our area at the end of last year with her partner.  They had both previously been employed until November 2014 – Client was on sick leave and her partner was made redundant.  They both satisfy NI contributions for ESA and JSA.

Client was admitted to hospital in December and was in for 3 weeks.

In January 2015 the couple approached the local jobcentre and were advised that they had to claim Universal Credit as they were both jobseekers – there were no questions asked relating to whether they were both fit to work.  They therefore claimed, and were subsequently awarded, Universal Credit.

At no point were contribution based benefits discussed with the clients – they both would have been eligible for contributory JSA and, in the case of the client, a claim should have been submitted for contribution based Employment & Support Allowance.

The difficulty now arises because the client has been diagnosed with cancer and has a long treatment plan and recovery ahead of her.  We advised her to claim contributory ESA to safeguard her income as her partner has recently returned to full time work – although a small entitlement remains to UC (it has dropped to £20 per month) she is better off claiming cbESA with a UC top up.

When she contacted the ESA claim line she was told that she could not apply for ESA as she has an active UC claim.  We eventually spoke to someone who realised that cbESA and UC can be paid concurrently but, despite the advisers best efforts, we have still not been able to get an active claim for cbESA because basically ‘the computer says no’!!

I have gone relatively high in the DWP and the answer still remains the same (although it is still being looked into)- there does not seem to be any way to start a claim for cbESA as there is an active claim for UC present - indeed one suggestion was to merely proceed with the UC claim only - despite the fact that this disadvantages the client to the tune of £109 per week and denies her the right to claim a contribution based benefit to which she qualifies!

My understanding is that she should have been advised to apply for any applicable contributory benefits before being asked to apply for UC in the first instance.  Leaving this aside, now that they have claimed UC they cannot ‘unclaim’ it and revert to legacy benefits are we wrong to think that she should now be allowed to submit a claim for cbESA which in turn will count as income for the purposes of UC?

My question is two-fold:

1.  Has anyone else had a similar experience who can provide me with some suggestions regarding what to do to get her ESA claim processed?  Leaving aside the fact that they should never have claimed UC in the first place, people will have changes in circumstances which result in sickness during a UC claim.

2. More importantly - are we certain that claimants are automatically being assessed for contribution based benefits if they submit a claim for UC?  Is there a procedure for this or is the Department relying on clients knowing what they should be claiming before they claim?  - My fear is that there will be an overwhelming amount of claimants on UC solely when they are actually entitled to contributory benefits in the first instance!

Any help appreciated!!

Mac@Barrow - 04 June 2015 11:27 AM

are we certain that claimants are automatically being assessed for contribution based benefits if they submit a claim for UC?

I think we’re pretty sure that they’re not.

we raised this problem at operational stakeholders - their response was the claimant has to claim UC first and then when they go for their first interview at the jobcentre it will be picked up there if they are entitled to contributory benefit!! Likely! I agree with Gareth.

You might be best submitting a paper ESA claim for your client to get past the computer.

i will pass this problem on though because I think it will be happening more and more.

Thanks Daphne - we have already tried submitting a paper claim and they have tried to manually submit the claim but still cannot do it!

That is ridiculous - I have done an email through to the contact for universal credit but I will copy it to be sent through to ESA/JSA as well

Thank you - in fairness UC are saying that it can be done - the problem seems to be with ESA

Complaint? In my experience, the complaints managers are on-the-whole competent and do seem to understand the problem and try to get them fixed. Also, appeal the decision to refuse benefit? DWP may dispute that this contitutes a refusal, but there is on the face of it no reason to not award benefit, so getting HMCTS involved may help move things along as a backstop.

Other than that, I don’t know what I’d do; keep on the case and keep pushing, I suppose.

as regards the second   point surely a freedom of information request (in general terms ) would clear this   point up

Complain and keep escalating it, also insist on financial redress for client to acknowledge the distress caused.

It is absurd of DWP to refuse to deal with this, they can deal with such cases clerically if the computer really cannot cope - not ideal I know but at least the client will then receive their due entitlement.

They have however probably made the last member of staff who could deal with such clerical claims in that office redundant…........hence why they are maintaining the computer says no policy…..

I had a phone call from a guy in universal credit policy team yesterday saying he is looking into it…will keep you updated…