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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

How long does permission to speak on behalf of the client last?

Ruth Knox
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Vauxhall Law Centre

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I’ve been working on the rough assumption that permission to speak on the client’s behalf has to be about a specific issue and runs for a month. In the last two days I have had the person answering the UC help line stating that it ran for a day! (although they then went ahead and looked for the information I needed) Is this a training issue?  Is there somewhere where it actually says how long authority to speak lasts?  Ruth

Ros
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This gov.uk guidance for claimants says that -

Explicit consent does not last forever, it usually lasts until either the specific request is completed or the end of the assessment period, after the one in which the consent was given.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-consent-and-disclosure-of-information

 

Ruth Knox
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Vauxhall Law Centre

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Thanks Ros, good to know.  Ruth

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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The guidance is just that and I take the view that the data belongs to the claimant and thus it is their view as to the correct life of the consent which matters. I also tend to avoid consents which are specific to an issue. A general consent until both adviser and claimant agree the matter is done is appropriate and I will always argue with DWP whenever they have tried to argue otherwise. Letters before action have been handy in this context too.

Elliot Kent
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Ruth Knox - 10 October 2019 06:01 PM

I’ve been working on the rough assumption that permission to speak on the client’s behalf has to be about a specific issue and runs for a month. In the last two days I have had the person answering the UC help line stating that it ran for a day! (although they then went ahead and looked for the information I needed) Is this a training issue?  Is there somewhere where it actually says how long authority to speak lasts?  Ruth

Yes the “24 hour consent” thing has come up before - see my post here
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/11063/P210

I don’t know where it has come from but somebody at the DWP seems to have decided that explicit consent is only good on the day it is given.