HB claim rejected; UC live service claim stopped, and WTC/HB claim made before area became UCFS

Hi all

Was hoping for a view on whether a HB claim rejection is correct

My client lives in NW1 and is self-employed. 

She had previously claimed UC on and off when NW1 was a live service area.

Her UC live service claim was stopped on 10/10/2018.

It was stopped incorrectly but instead of appealing she took the opportunity to claim WTC and HB instead as she would be better of in all sorts of ways.

She put in the claims in before NW1 became full service on 5th December 2018.

Her HB claim has been rejected - this is the reason given (no law quoted)

‘You were recently in receipt of Universal Credit. As this is the case you will need to reclaim Universal
Credit for help with your housing costs (rent).’

Is that correct and if so why?  Have I missed something re. live service?  I thought live service had stopped until the area became full service and in the meantime you claim legacy benefit instead?

Confusion!

EKS

If UC stopped because her earnings were too high to qualify, she would have been blocked from claiming HB and Tax Credits for six months.  If UC stopped for any other reason, there was nothing to stop her reclaiming HB and Tax Credits.

The legislation the Council should have regard to is Reg 6 of the UC (Transitional Provisions) Regs 2014: in a an area that was not yet full service, that was the only regulation that prevented anyone from making a new claim for HB and Tax Credits.  It says you cannot claim those benefits if you are a “UC claimant”, which is defined as:

- entitled to UC (she wasn’t - it had stopped)
- a UC claim, MR or appeal outstanding (there wasn’t - she chose not to dispute the end of her UC)
- part of a couple on UC within the past month (I’m assuming she wasn’t)
- lost UC because earnings were too high within the last six months

Local authorities often wrongly believed that once you had been on UC there was never any way back to legacy benefits.  Sometimes they believed that was only the case if you had been on UC within the past six months, which is closer but still not correct in most cases.

It’s different in full service, which means everywhere in just under 7 hours’ time as I type this.  But your client was still able to reclaim legacy benefits before last Wednesday except for the very narrow reasons I have listed above.