× Search rightsnet
Search options

Where

Benefit

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

From

to

Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

credits only UC claim

LJF
forum member

Benefits caseworker - Manchester Citizens Advice Bureau

Send message

Total Posts: 143

Joined: 12 July 2010

client got over £16,000 - in full UC area
criteria for UC claim in full area say can’t claim if got over £16,000
can he claim just for credits only or would they not take a claim from him and he should claim JSA credits only (or would they not take a claim as full area?)

thanks all

Elliot Kent
forum member

Shelter

Send message

Total Posts: 3117

Joined: 14 July 2014

He can still claim new-style (i.e. contributory) Jobseekers Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance. He would get his credits (and may even be entitled to the benefit depending on NI record).

https://www.dwpe-services.direct.gov.uk/portal/page/portal/jsaol/lp
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-employment-and-support-allowance#how-to-claim-new-style-esa

Benny Fitzpatrick
forum member

Welfare Rights Officer, Southway Housing Trust, Manchester

Send message

Total Posts: 627

Joined: 2 June 2015

Word of warning. Claiming “New Style” (conts based) ESA is an absolute nightmare. Rigid system which is unresponsive to individual client’s needs, and JCP staff who can’t give useful answers and have to run off to ask someone else, who then tell you to go back to square one and repeat the entire meaningless process! Initiative and adaptability have been banned from all UC areas!

LJF
forum member

Benefits caseworker - Manchester Citizens Advice Bureau

Send message

Total Posts: 143

Joined: 12 July 2010

so it would be a claim to contribution based (new style) for credits only? rather than claim for Income related UC and being awarded credits only? why?
you claim new style JSA by claiming UC?

Benny Fitzpatrick
forum member

Welfare Rights Officer, Southway Housing Trust, Manchester

Send message

Total Posts: 627

Joined: 2 June 2015

Local jobcentres are taking the line that “new-style” ESA and JSA can only be claimed by submitting a UC claim. They will not accept any other form of claim (despite what others have said on Rightsnet), even when the client meets the conts criteria and has no wish or need to claim UC. Seems everyone has to be inside the lobster pot and under surveillance.

Ruth Knox
forum member

Vauxhall Law Centre

Send message

Total Posts: 551

Joined: 27 January 2014

I think I am missing something here.  I assume you can only claim New Style JSA if you have a contribution record, and then only for 6 months.?  But there will be people who have a right to have credits as they are involuntarily out of work and are looking for work.  Can they claim a “credits only” UC if their household earnings or savings put them over the limit for entitlement?  If not, how do they maintain their NI record for pension and other purposes?  Ruth

LJF
forum member

Benefits caseworker - Manchester Citizens Advice Bureau

Send message

Total Posts: 143

Joined: 12 July 2010

Yes Ruth that’s what I am referring to

Lee Forrest
forum member

Team leader of Financial and Social Inclusion - Karbon Homes, Newcastle

Send message

Total Posts: 92

Joined: 16 May 2011

The way i’m reading it (CPAG p967), your client would have to apply to JC+ for credits, and would get them as long as they:

-are not engaged in ft paid work
-are not in relevant education
-do not have LCW
- are under PC age and, because he or she comes under the UC system;
-satisfy the UC work search and work availability requirements

WillH
forum member

Locum adviser - CPAG in Scotland

Send message

Total Posts: 365

Joined: 17 June 2010

Yep - just having a look at the credits regs, reg 8A. If the client gets any new style JSA, that’s fine (although as Benny has said, getting it is a nightmare).

If not, then you’d still get the credits if you met the conditions - the work search and work availability requirements.

You do have to make a claim in writing for the credits - reg 8A(3). You don’t have to have a claimant commitment (from my reading of the regs), but since you have to meet work-related requirements, it’s not clear how you would otherwise have a basis for providing evidence of having met these. So from a practical point of view, a claim for new style JSA, despite all the complexity that would involve & despite not being entitled, seems the only sure way that you would be able to prove you’d met the requirements for credits.

 

Lee Forrest
forum member

Team leader of Financial and Social Inclusion - Karbon Homes, Newcastle

Send message

Total Posts: 92

Joined: 16 May 2011

WillH - 07 December 2017 10:26 AM

Yep - just having a look at the credits regs, reg 8A. If the client gets any new style JSA, that’s fine (although as Benny has said, getting it is a nightmare).

If not, then you’d still get the credits if you met the conditions - the work search and work availability requirements.

You do have to make a claim in writing for the credits - reg 8A(3). You don’t have to have a claimant commitment (from my reading of the regs), but since you have to meet work-related requirements, it’s not clear how you would otherwise have a basis for providing evidence of having met these. So from a practical point of view, a claim for new style JSA, despite all the complexity that would involve & despite not being entitled, seems the only sure way that you would be able to prove you’d met the requirements for credits.

 

But if the client isn’t entitled to new style JSA, and lives in a UC full service area, their only recourse would be to claim UC. I’m not sure what happens once you confirm your claim online (if you’ve declared over £16,000 in savings). I’m assuming the claim would be taken, you’d attend JC+ and have to do the same for your credits as you’d have to for an income.

If the online claim is rejected (because of the savings), you’d have to write to JC+ to claim credits. It would be interesting to see how you would show any compliance without the journal. There’s a recent FOI request that (if memory serves) confirms that you don’t have to evidence work search on your journal, which makes things interesting in this context. Could someone in a full service (‘fully digital’) area, apply for credits in writing to their local Job Centre plus, and attend JC+ appointments face to face to show work search evidence etc.

Just thinking aloud, really….

Jon (CANY)
forum member

Welfare benefits - Craven CAB, North Yorkshire

Send message

Total Posts: 1362

Joined: 16 June 2010

In this FOI response, JCP suggest that you just ring the old claim line and ask to initiate a credits-only claim, whereupon you will be invited to return a JSA(NC1) form:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/claiming_new_style_esa_or_jsa_wh