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add. elements due, to do’s, prevention of duplication of payments etc
Another example of system design issues / lack of UC staff understanding.
client naturally migrated from ESA to UC Nov 17. Everything possible has ‘gone wrong’ with the claim / award!
DLA has been re-awarded by tribunal IRO child. Aside from arrears of CP on ESA and DCP on CTC due for period before UC - application for revision posted to UC journal (with full ref. to regs and DLA award notice uploaded).
For some unknown reason this is being dealt with by Work Coach instead of Case Manager. Multiple journal entries getting nowhere. To be fair to the WC they do admit this is not their role / expertise (so why isnt CM dealing).
I just spoken to CM and a subsequent response posted to journal by CM. Apparently client should have notified child’s disability as a ‘to do’. Except when we tried it there is no ‘to do’ for reporting a change in a child’s circumstances (only claimant) - the ‘to do’ states if the COC isn’t covered here please make an entry on the journal (err that’s what we did!).
Because DLA is back in award client has also re-claimed CA which has just been awarded. So ask CM about ensuring ‘prevention of duplication of payment’ action is taken between UC and CA - stunned silence. Further post to journal to explain what this is and request UC ensure there is no duplicate payment / overpayment.
Do others have experience of ‘prevention of duplication’ under UC - is it working well or leading to overpayments as other part of DWP do not communicate with UC? I know there are issues with UC and ‘new style’ ESA/JSA duplication but what about CA, IIDB etc?
Now we are 9 months+ into UCFS and given the delays with appeal we are just starting to see these issues arising following successful tribunals!
[ Edited: 13 Sep 2018 at 11:55 am by Peter Turville ]Daphne - perhaps it would be helpful if DWP provided a dummy UC account where advisers can familiarise themselves with these details without having to access a real clients account.
Hi Peter - we have asked them for this before without success but I can keep trying. What I’ve done is gone on and played at making a claim myself and just not gone as far as clicking the submit button at the end which is helpful.
There are also quite a few videos from the DWP on youtube under ‘UC in action’ which do at least give you an idea of what it all looks like - the one with a general overview is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WgJU8Y_bQg&t=6s - there’s a section in here showing how you report a change in circumstances - there’s a special tab for it under the ‘Home’ section - see screenshot attached.
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