Income Support linking rules

I am wondering if anybody could help please :)

Wendy* has twins who turned 5 in May, up until that point Wendy was in receipt of Income Support.
Wendy* is 27 weeks pregnant with her third child and is currently not in receipt of any benefit, apart from child benefit & child tax credits.

Wendy decided against claiming what she thought would be job seekers because she has had pregnancy related illnesses throughout. Wendy assumed that she would apply to go back on IS once she had the new baby, of course we know this wouldn’t be the case and in fact Wendy would have to make a claim for Universal Credit.

However, trying to keep this lady on legacy benefits..

Would there be any grounds to request a mandatory reconsideration of the decision to end IS entitlement?
In 2 weeks time Wendy will be within the 11 weeks bracket to be entitled to claim IS.

Or will this not be the case because from May up until the 11 week window there would have been no entitlement to IS?

Thanks in advance.

Jade :)

No, there wouldn’t be any grounds to challenge the decision unless she was actually was in a prescribed category of person for another reason (e.g. carer) for at least a day in each benefit week. There is no “linking” provision that would assist here; a further claim for income support would be required and cannot be made, so she would have to apply for UC, but won’t be able to get a child element for the third child unless any of the exemptions to the two child limit apply. She can stay on what she is getting now but won’t get an increase in CTC unless an exemption applies - she can get child benefit for the third child either way.