UC, unfit for work, NI Credits

Is there any analogous situation under UC to the ‘credits only claim’ that you could get under irESA/IS on grounds of incapacity?

I have come across a case in a full service area where there is a pension income which is too high to qualify for UC and there is no recent contribution record to get cbESA. Previous advice would be credits only ESA claim, but I can’t see any way of doing this under UC.

The level of the pension is such that they would qualify for some payment of UC only if the limited capability for work and work related activity component was awarded. How could they get to to that stage if they don’t qualify at the point of claim, but would do after an assessment finding them to have LCW&WRA;? Is there any mechanism to ‘keep the claim going’ until the assessment is done??

I think Reg 28(7) is meant to cover this: if the only reason why you don’t qualify for UC is that you don’t have an LCW/LCWRA component included during the UC equivalent of the ESA assessment phase, but you will qualify as soon as the component is awarded, you are entitled to 1p a month of UC pending the LCW/LCWRA assessment, which keeps the award “live”.

I know there is the much discussed circular argument that in UC you cannot be treated as having LCW until they have done the assessment, in which case how do you know whether that’s the only reason you don’t qualify, but the intention seems pretty clear

Thanks for that. I’m assuming the 1p UC will give rise to NI credits, then.

Unfortunately it doesn’t give rise to credits if you are on UC - see CPAG pg 968

Ah, I’d skim-read the part at the bottom of that page, but looking again it refers to class 3 contributions.

Thanks