Section 8 of Social Security Act 1998

Morning all,

I’m dealing with a UC claim that the DWP is trying to close after the first UC payment has been made because the claimant answered one of the gateway questions incorrectly on the application form.

The Welfare Reform Act 2012 deals with this situation relatively clearly for cases where a UC payment hasn’t been made yet, but where a payment has been made it refers you to Section 8 of Social Security Act 1998.

Can anyone describe, in a nutshell what Section 8 means. I’ve read it and assume it’s something along the lines of - “Where the regs don’t make it clear what should happen or don’t tell you what should happen, the secretary of state (DWP) can decide what to do.” That’s a stretch though, as I didn’t really understand it.

Cheers

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/14/section/8/enacted

s8(1) is the DWP’s obligation to decide claims for benefit,
s8(2)(a) explains that where a decision is made on a claim, the claim as such no longer exists and is replaced by the decision,
s8(2)(b) explains that only the circumstances pertaining at the time of the decision are relevant to entitlement
s8(3)-(5) are essentially concerned with setting out which benefits are for the DWP to deal with

I don’t see the relevance of any of that to the situation you describe. If an award has been made and the DWP want to close the claim, they will need to either revise (under s9) or supersede (under s10) the decision. They can’t make a s8 decision because the claim has already been decided.

Thanks for that. This is the bit in the Welfare Reform Act which referred me to the SSA 1998:

(Article 3A) (6) Where the discovery is made after a decision has been made that the claimant is
entitled to universal credit and one or more payments have been made in respect of the
claimant, the decision is to be treated as a decision under section 8 of the Social
Security Act 1998.

We have written this text on our website for advisers:

Where a claimant gives incorrect information about living in one of the relevant districts or meeting the gateway conditions and this is not discovered until after a decision has be made and at least one payment is made then they will remain entitled to UC. (taken from http://revenuebenefits.org.uk/universal-credit/guidance/who-can-claim-universal-credit/live-service-areas/#Claims for UC based on incorrect information)

This is based on an exception that appears in the commencement orders for each of the relevant districts.

See also Page 9 of this CPAG presentation http://www.cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/CPAG-opening-gateway-UC-claims-conference-notes-Sept2015.pdf

Victoria

Thanks. I have read both links above, and both very useful.

What legislation does the following come from? It is an extract from the first link (website).

“As with the digital service area, there is a general power that states the Secretary of State may determine not to accept any particular claims for UC temporarily in order to safeguard the efficient administration of UC or ensure the effective testing of systems for the administration of UC.”

On a different point, another client I’m helping had his first UC claim ended because he answered the gateway questions incorrectly, but the DWP advised him to claim again (from that date) rather than telling him to ask for backdated legacy benefits. Given that he now has a new, second UC claim because he does now meet the gateway conditions, does that mean that IB-JSA and IR-ESA have been effectively abolished for him? I want him to do backdated claims for JSA and HB, but the claims would only be for the period before his second UC claim started, so does that mean he escapes the rule which says current UC claimants can’t claim legacy benefits? I have asked the DWP if they will backdate the second UC claim to avoid the hassle of doing backdated JSA/HB claims, but if they say no…

geep - 22 June 2016 01:08 PM

Thanks. I have read both links above, and both very useful.

What legislation does the following come from? It is an extract from the first link (website).

“As with the digital service area, there is a general power that states the Secretary of State may determine not to accept any particular claims for UC temporarily in order to safeguard the efficient administration of UC or ensure the effective testing of systems for the administration of UC.”
...

That’s from reg 4 of the UC (Transitional Provisions) Regs 2014

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1230/pdfs/uksi_20141230_en.pdf