UC for a ft disabled student

Ken
UC etc. (C&P) Reg. 34 allows a claim to be made up to three months in advance. As there would be a clear advance date (20th birthday), “the relevant day”, I see no reason why not within the Regs. However how easy this would be to do in practice? I haven’t tried.

Hi,

Read this thread with interest as I have had a query which I thinks falls under this.

Client’s son is 21. Is on a full time ‘pathways to independence’ course until June. Gets DLA ER care. Just moved in to a shared house supported accommodation receiving HB (client is concerned DLA will take the DLA care off him due to this, however hopefully they will not classify his accommodation this way). After June he will hopefully go on to a ‘step course’ which is not full time, 2 days a week with 1 day every week or two supported work placement.

I believe for now he is classified as a student as he is ‘‘on a course which is not compatible with your work-related requirements in your Universal Credit claimant commitment’‘. Unless I am wrong on this regard?

Can he apply before June? Can he even apply after June? It sounds like he will fall under the same catch 22 as everyone else on this thread. Anyone had any luck with making a new style ESA claim just to get the WCA yet?

What a silly situation!

I have heard from an adviser in Durham that UC have agreed to hold on making a decision on entitlement and carry out a WCA (as set out in the CPAG article that Ken posted above) so there may be some hope… Also they agreed to consider sending him for a WCA from day 1 of the claim instead of waiting for day 29 as they usually do.

My clients appointee (see above) has (finally) been assisted by DWP to make the UC claim. DWP have now advised me that the claimant has been referred to the provider for a WCA. I have still been unable to establish if the HV officer / Jobcentre accepted the ESAUC1 paper claim form from the appointee or if client will be paid at the end of the 1st assessment period (or award backdated.

It seems from the last two replies that UC are referring for a WCA now then? Sounds promising at least. I also spoke to another client just now who has a son on PIP and is a full time student who has applied for UC, they are waiting for the work coach to look in to it. No payments or news of WCA yet, claim was started 8 weeks ago.

As is often the case the DWP are being inconsistent in this.  I have a client with twins both aged 20 in full time education and with learning difficulties and some other issues and yes you’ve guessed it one was awarded UC and one wasn’t.  Strangely the one whose PIP renewal has been refused (we’re appealing about it) claimed UC without any problem.  The one who gets PIP already had her UC application refused because of no WCA.  I’ve appealed the UC decision and waiting for a hearing date also applied for new style ESA - awaiting outcome.

JAS1 - 26 April 2018 11:22 AM

It seems from the last two replies that UC are referring for a WCA now then? Sounds promising at least. I also spoke to another client just now who has a son on PIP and is a full time student who has applied for UC, they are waiting for the work coach to look in to it. No payments or news of WCA yet, claim was started 8 weeks ago.

I don’t think we can draw that conclusion. It may all depend on how well the particular work coach / decision maker understands the internal process, guidance and regulation. We will have to see how far into the process any particular claimant gets and how many are actually awarded UC.

It would be nice if the DWP were quietly ‘back peddling’ from their earlier position.

Has anyone yet got to the stage where a claimant has received a decision that they they are not entitled to UC that has been challenged by MR, appeal, judicial review?

Yeah suppose sample size of 2 doesn’t tell us much unfortunately. Will just have to keep trying I guess. Emailed our DWP partnership manager to see if she is aware of the issue but it’s already been highlighted higher up the chain by CPAG and others ages ago so awareness isn’t the issue. Can’t hurt though.

Just to clarify, will DWP definitely do a WCA on a new style ESA application then, even if there is no hope of eligibility for ESA through NI contributions?

I think this issue links in with Martin’s response in this thread:

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/12714/

Basically, the question is, can you have LCW as a ‘stand alone’ status without having a claim (or award) of either ESA or UC? And the answer, as Martin points out, is yes, under these regs:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1975/556/pdfs/uksi_19750556_280215_en.pdf

Now the traditional mechanism for assessing whether you have LCW is always for you to make a claim for a social security benefit that is concerned with LCW (ESA and more recently, UC and new-style ESA), but that mechanism appears to be an administrative convenience - it’s easier to have LCW assessed by the government department tasked with paying benefits in respect of that status. However, I think there should have a mechanism for making a claim for the status of LCW without having to claim a social security benefit (that you know you’re going to get refused), to get you the credits under the contributions regs referred to above. But unfortunately there isn’t such a mechanism at present. At the moment I agree that the best course of action is probably a claim for new-style ESA; it’s akin to the advice we give to pensioners with regard to CA, which is claim, we know you’ll get refused, but you’ll get a status in the process which will have a positive impact on a different benefit.

Hi,

Just to ask if anyone has any recent feedback on this issue.

Are there exampes of disabed students being refered for a WCA on claiming UC?

Or are there still examples of UC being refused with no WCA referal?

Thanks,

Ken

I’ve heard of at least one case where referred for a WCA promptly

our client (see above) was referred for a WCA but appointee has ceased to engage with us so I dont know if it took place / outcome or any issues that may have followed.

Ken Butler - 18 June 2018 11:27 AM

Hi,

Just to ask if anyone has any recent feedback on this issue.

Are there exampes of disabed students being refered for a WCA on claiming UC?

Or are there still examples of UC being refused with no WCA referal?

Thanks,

Ken

uc claim refused in my most recent example.

Hi Everyone

I just thought I’d give a bit of an update with regards to my applications for UC for disabled students. I have finally had my first UC claim accepted and payments due to start in 16 days.

I submitted a UC claim on the grounds of the young person being a disabled student and as suspected claim was accepted but no payments made. I handed in a sicknote and attended the JC with the claimant to discuss claim with work coach. She advised he would have no work commitments but no payments would be made. It also showed on his journal that it should be considered whether he had a LCWRA in order to allow him to be paid. The job coach seemed a little shocked at this recommendation as this wasn’t normally suggested till day 30 of the claim and this suggestion was made on day 1, this allowed me to get my hopes up…. all be it a teeny amount.

I waited for rec of UC50, which took its time but did arrive, completed it and have received confirmation that client now has LCWRA and will be paid UC. Just seemed to be the same procedure and waiting times as an ESA claim, the only downside was that no payments were being made to client like they would have been on ESA.

The letter he received confirmed that UC will be paid as he now had a LCWRA and surprisingly his award will be backdated to Feb when it was first submitted. I didn’t think they would backdate to date of claim but have it in black and white that they are going to. I assumed they would only backdate to date they decided client had LCWRA but was shocked when the letter said it was going to DOC.

In future I think I am going to complete a UC50 straight away as I have a hard copy which will hopefully cut the waiting time a bit.

The whole process is still not ideal but at least we know student can get payments of UC, which is more than I thought a couple of months ago!!

Thanks DWRS. Just found this thread and was getting very depressed till I got to near the end. However, as previous posters have observed, I’m not confident that the same thing will happen every time…
Our client is too ill to undertake his course, but as he has neither abandoned it nor been dismissed (the education provider says he is ‘dormant’) (nor has he recovered, which oddly would give him entitlement) he needs to get LCFW. In this case the DWP sent a UC50 which we helped the claimant complete, the client was then told by the health care assessors that he didn’t have to attend a medical, and then the DWP denied that the possibility of a WCA ever existed. Obviously we’re pursuing this.