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Backdating UC treated as new claim
Clt claims UC on 22/5/19. They want the claim backdated to 8/5/19, but don’t get round to requesting this until 24/6/19.
UC have refused to backdate. “As your claim dated 22/05/2019 has been determined the law states that backdating of that claim cannot be considered. Your request dated 24/06/2019 is treated as a separate claim and backdating of that claim is considered.” Backdating of 24/6/19 “claim” refused because can only be backdated 1 mth and UC already in payment for previous mth.
The decision letter cites Regs 8, 10 and 26 of UC, PIP, JSA and ESA (C&P) Regs. I cannot see anything in here to suggest that the decision made on 24/5/19 cannot be revised to backdate the claim, am I totally barking up the wrong tree here?
Has anyone else encountered this before?
[ Edited: 16 Jul 2019 at 10:00 am by Philippa D ]This has come up before: https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/13438/#68154
I think DWP probably consider a claim which doesn’t explicitly ask for a backdate as being made for the period starting with the date of claim, in which case the backdating request would have to be made (due to reg 30) before the claim is decided.
Regs 8, 10 and 26 are only relevant once it is accepted that a fresh claim has to be made.
You would certainly have a decent argument though: claimants do not say when they want the claim to begin, so why should DWP assume no backdating is wanted?
You would certainly have a decent argument though: claimants do not say when they want the claim to begin, so why should DWP assume no backdating is wanted?
I think this is a really good point which is going to need to be developed at some point, possibly at the UT.
“Backdating” is a dirty word of course. There is no provision for backdating - only “extending the time in which a claim can be made”
Conventional claims for benefit include a box asking for the claimant to indicate the date from which they are seeking to claim - so the claimant can say that they are seeking to claim from date X and then the decision maker needs to consider whether the time for claiming should be extended. If the claimant does not indicate that they want to be considered to be claiming from an earlier date, then the DWP can point to the form and say that the date of claim was clearly indicated.
But UC doesn’t do this - there is nowhere to indicate what date is being claimed from.
So should the claim be taken as implicitly requiring the DM to consider an extension or is it acceptable for the DWP to require the claimant to make a separate request for an extension of time without ever telling them they can?
UC have refused to backdate. “As your claim dated 22/05/2019 has been determined the law states that backdating of that claim cannot be considered.
This is wrong. The decision can be revised on any grounds (if a timely request is made).
This is wrong. The decision can be revised on any grounds (if a timely request is made).
Not if they consider the claim as made for the period starting with the date of claim. If that is the case, the claim has to be amended, and that can only be done before the claim is decided.
You would certainly have a decent argument though: claimants do not say when they want the claim to begin, so why should DWP assume no backdating is wanted?
I think this is a really good point which is going to need to be developed at some point, possibly at the UT.
“Backdating” is a dirty word of course. There is no provision for backdating - only “extending the time in which a claim can be made”
Conventional claims for benefit include a box asking for the claimant to indicate the date from which they are seeking to claim - so the claimant can say that they are seeking to claim from date X and then the decision maker needs to consider whether the time for claiming should be extended. If the claimant does not indicate that they want to be considered to be claiming from an earlier date, then the DWP can point to the form and say that the date of claim was clearly indicated.
But UC doesn’t do this - there is nowhere to indicate what date is being claimed from.
So should the claim be taken as implicitly requiring the DM to consider an extension or is it acceptable for the DWP to require the claimant to make a separate request for an extension of time without ever telling them they can?
I suspect this is a build problem. The system assumes the claim is made on the date the “submit” button is pressed. I wonder how much of a pain it would be to specify a date of claim.. It may well be fundamental to the design of the software and difficult to change.
Thank you all for the replies