When is a claimant not a UC claimant?

Sorry my brain is fried and I’m struggling to make sense…

We are in full UC area.

If a person claims UC but is refused as she was found to have no R2R can she then claim legacy benefits if her circumstances change and she has not challenged the UC decision?

I can see in Reg 6 that she would be a UC claimant if she had challenged the decision and was waiting for a reply, however I can not see that it says you are a UC claimant if a decision of no entitlement has been made.

My concern is that the family will be prevented from claiming legacy benefits if they have claimed UC within the last 6 months and they would need to reclaim UC and / or challenge the R2R decision made in July.

Client is EU national and in July 2017 claimed UC as a single parent with 2 children. She was refused as she was found to have no R2R. She did not challenge this decision. She was 7 months pregnant and returned to Italy in August 2017 to have her 3rd baby returning in September with her husband.

She started work early October and claimed Tax Credits and Housing Benefit as they now have 3 children and were advised that they cannot claim UC with 3 children. When I spoke to HMRC and LA they said they were looking into it…

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks

UC(TP) Reg 6 isn’t the problem here.  You are right that it only blocks legacy claims by people who are on UC or have UC issues pending.  If the UC claim has been decided, there is no award and no MR/appeal, you are normally free to claim legacy benefits again - the UC provisions in the WRA 2012 have effectively “uncommenced” for you.  But this only helps if you are in a live service area.  If you are in a full service area, Article 7 of the No 23 Order prevents you from claiming legacy benefits in most cases (subject to exceptions, including having >2 children).

The only reason why your client has been able to claim legacy benefits is having three children - if it wasn’t for that, Article 7 of the No 23 Order would have got in the way.

Thank you so much, it was the third child that did it!