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Does a Carer’s Allowance claim trigger a UC claim?
The client in question is receiving Income Based ESA, HB and PIP DL. Her daughter, has just been awarded PIPDL and relies on her mother to care for her. As the daughter claims UC, she would not lose anything if her mother were to apply for CA, but would it trigger a UC claim for the mother, thus losing her own SDP? (They live separately)
I don’t think it would, but would be very glad of confirmation.
Just out of interest, if her mother were on CESA Support Group and HB and PIP, would applying for CA trigger a UC claim?
Thank you in anticipation.
The short answer is no for at least 2 reasons - the mother has SDP so therefore is barred from making a UC claim and CA is not a UC legacy benefit and it is only new claims to these which mean a claim for UC must be made.
There is an important point in that if mum decides to claim CA, her daughter will lose out on the SDP compensation which will eventually be paid - as the payment will only be made to people who qualified for SDP at the point of conversion and still do when the DWP gets around to paying compensation.
(I think it would be worth forwarding this case to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) as it is a good illustration of how the proposals to compensate people for SDP loss are causing problems)
Surely in this case she wouldn’t be entitled to compensation, as that requires entitlement to SDP prior to the UC award. Here it seems she was on UC already before becoming entitled to PIP.
The short answer is no for at least 2 reasons - the mother has SDP so therefore is barred from making a UC claim and CA is not a UC legacy benefit and it is only new claims to these which mean a claim for UC must be made.
I realise that having the SDP means she should not make an application for UC, but is she actually barred? I’m wondering whether ESA might advise wrongly and instead of adding the SDP, advise her to apply for UC. Is there anything in the online UC application process which will prevent her from doing so now?
There is an important point in that if mum decides to claim CA, her daughter will lose out on the SDP compensation which will eventually be paid - as the payment will only be made to people who qualified for SDP at the point of conversion and still do when the DWP gets around to paying compensation.
(I think it would be worth forwarding this case to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) as it is a good illustration of how the proposals to compensate people for SDP loss are causing problems)
As Charles says below, the daughter was on UC prior to applying for PIP. Thanks though.
Yes sorry, I should have read the post more carefully. I am sure it is a situation which will come up though.
I realise that having the SDP means she should not make an application for UC, but is she actually barred? I’m wondering whether ESA might advise wrongly and instead of adding the SDP, advise her to apply for UC. Is there anything in the online UC application process which will prevent her from doing so now?
It should be impossible for anyone to claim if they are either getting SDP in a legacy benefit or have been in the past month. There are questions baked into the UC gateway to try and elicit this and there is a special team who are supposed to deal with controversial cases. There will of course be cases where errors are made.
The short answer is no for at least 2 reasons - the mother has SDP so therefore is barred from making a UC claim and CA is not a UC legacy benefit and it is only new claims to these which mean a claim for UC must be made.
I realise that having the SDP means she should not make an application for UC, but is she actually barred? I’m wondering whether ESA might advise wrongly and instead of adding the SDP, advise her to apply for UC. Is there anything in the online UC application process which will prevent her from doing so now?
If the screening questions at the start of the online claiming process are answered correctly – in particular the question “Did you get a severe disability premium” – you will be directed elsewhere.
If that question is answered “Yes” you will arrive on a page that says you cannot claim UC and with details of how to claim legacy benefits (phone 0800 169 0350 to claim IS/ESA/JSA, contact LA for HB and phone 0345 300 3900 for tax credits). If you answer it “I don’t know” the page you arrive on says “You cannot claim Universal Credit if you get the severe disability premium.
Call 0800 181 4049 to find out whether you are getting the severe disability premium. We will tell you what to do next.”
Here’s an example of a claim for Carer’s Allowance ‘triggering’ the need for a UC claim.
Client claims HB and WTC/ CTC. Disabled child received MRC DLA, so client claimed Carers Allowance.
LA received notification that Carers Allowance claim, and decided to use that as a reason to end the HB claim, sending client the decision notice along with the recommendation that they should claim UC.
Client did not claim UC, nor did they want to claim UC. They wanted, for the time being at least, to stay on HB and CTC. LA stated that ‘as client *would* have claimed IS under the old rules, and IS can’t be paid, they are depriving themselves of income by not claiming UC’. Obviously, not claiming IS/ UC has no effect of increasing entitlement to any other benefit. Client is quite a bit worse off, but is aware of that.
We intervened, and HB was reinstated.
I posted this here, as it is a good example of trigger happy and bizarre decision making around UC.
Pedants’ corner: I think the term ‘triggering a UC claim’ is unhelpful. A trigger is an something that causes something else to happen. Using that definition, claiming Carer’s Allowance, might trigger the need to claim an income based benefit, and the only available one may be UC. As in the example above, the choice still exists about whether to pull that trigger (p.s. most people I say this to thinks I’m being a…. pedant).
You are absolutely NOT being a pedant. There are still local authorities who think that certain events make it compulsory to claim UC even if not claiming is a perfectly viable option. Only last week I had to put an LA straight about this. Only one person decides whether and if so when it is necessary to claim UC, and it isn’t the LA or DWP.