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Full service UC area and ESA stoppage. About to hit us. Help!
Full service Universal Credit rolls out in our local job centre - Hammersmith - on 29th June. Our Number One concern is what happens to those clients who present to us with the most common of benefit problems – failure of the WCA and ending of ESA. These clients tend to be some of our most vulnerable.
Could someone please clarify a typical UC journey post 29 June.
Mrs X is a single mother, in receipt of ESA, PIP, CTC, CB , full HB and CTS. She has physical and mental health issues and her English is poor. She struggles to read and write and has no computer skills.
On 29th June she gets a letter from the DWP saying her ESA has stopped after failing a WCA on 24th June. She gets another letter saying HB/CTS have also been suspended from the 24th.
Mrs X comes to our bureau on 30th June. We explain she needs to request a MR for the ESA and make a claim for Universal Credit When she is eventually helped - either by the job centre or by the CAB -to make an online application, it’s July 1st. What does she put the UC start date as? Is she treated as having transitional protection because she was getting ESA and Housing Benefit and is therefore exempt from the 7 waiting days? Is so, when would her first payment of UC be calculated from? 24/6/16 or date of application 1/7/16?
Despite the failure of the WCA, Mrs X is really quite ill. She has to sign the UC claimant’s commitment but is too sick to comply with the work related requirements. Currently most of our clients appealing their ESA stoppage are able to claim JSA and then an extended period of sickness for 13 weeks whilst waiting for Tribunal response to the SSCS1 form. What is the UC equivalent ? Is it really just 2 weeks?
And does Mrs X have the option of NOT claiming UC during the appeal period, living on her PIP and tax credits and asking the council to calculate HB based on nil income? Would ESA at assessment rate be reinstated once her SSCS1 form had been accepted by the Tribunal?
So many unknowns…
There are quite a few questions in your post but just to answer about the date of UC claim as I am just advising a client on this. Your UC claim can be backdated for a max of one month where you were previously getting JSA or ESA and were not notified of the end of your entitlement before it ends or if you ‘have a disability’. CPAG p158-9, C&P Regs 26 (3).
So in your scenario a claim made on 1st July can be backdated to 24th June.
Yes there would also be exemption from the 7 waiting days because on ESA and HB in the month immediately preceding. Just be aware that the 7 waiting days don’t change the date of claim, but the date the first Assessment Period starts. So yes the first assessment period should be 24th June to 23rd July.