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SDP claimants to be moved back to legacy - change of policy from 2nd March
Email from DWP yesterday after one of our staff was told that the SDP transitional payments were ‘not working very well’ and policy was to change.
If this is the case it looks like a huge reverse-ferret and welcome though it may be it raises all sorts of questions.
It is March coming up, not April….?
Following a Universal Credit policy change which took place from 16 January 2019, claimants who were receiving SDP on their legacy claim were not entitled to claim Universal Credit (UC). Claimants are prevented from claiming UC if they have received and were entitled to SDP within the last calendar month. We call this a “hard gateway”.
However, some customers have been breaching the gateway and have been making claims to UC. When this is identified before UC goes into payment, these customers are currently signposted back to their legacy benefit by the UC SDP Team & Preston Benefits Centre.
From Monday, 2nd March 2020, customers who were not identified in time and are therefore now in receipt of UC, but who had SDP in payment/continued to be entitled, at the time they made their claim to UC, will also be moved back to a legacy benefit and their claim to UC will end.
Our guidance is that if a customer, currently claiming UC, makes contact and states they were in receipt of SDP at the time they made their claim, or within the previous calendar month, we are to explain that UC are currently identifying all customers who are impacted by this. However, if a customer wants to confirm that they will be included in this exercise, please signpost the customer to the UC SDP Team on 0800 181 4049.
Does anyone have any idea whether this change of heart will be extended to those claimants who had to claim UC before the gateway restriction was put in place but who received or had entitlement to the SDP at the time of their claim?
This is all I know at present, and the statement is sufficiently ambiguous as to allow that interpretation. I keep seeing different meanings to it…
See also:
FOI response (January 2020) re ‘claimants who breach the SDP gateway’: https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/13872/P165/#73665
... and new HB guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-benefit-adjudication-circulars-2020/a32020-changes-to-the-severe-disability-premium-process
See also:
FOI response (January 2020) re ‘claimants who breach the SDP gateway’: https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/13872/P165/#73665
... and new HB guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-benefit-adjudication-circulars-2020/a32020-changes-to-the-severe-disability-premium-process
That would seem to narrow down its significance.
However, a colleague was told that following this change, someone who had qualified for PIP on successful MR (and who, would, I think, have qualified for SDP ‘transitional payments’) would be restored to legacy benefits.
That may have been a misinterpretation of the UC email by the member of staff - ?
I am just wondering what the current situation is with these cases? In reality are claimants being moved back to legacy, and if some are, is it just those who had an SDP in payment at the time they claimed UC or is it others too (such as successful PIP challenges bringing about retrospective SDP entitlement)?
And how will this work?
Appears only to apply to managed migration?
THE SDP GATEWAY 18. Chapter M5 (Claims for UC - digital service area) gives guidance on when claims for UC may not be made, including claims from people entitled to the SDP. From 27.1.21 the SDP Gateway provisions are revoked1 . The guidance at M5210 – M5231 is cancelled and should no longer be followed. 1 UC (MM Pilot) Regs, reg 7; UC(TP) Regs, reg 4A
That is the end of the gateway, alas. It was always there in the managed migration regs. The memo confirms it.
It applies to everyone - unless things change again, SDP claimants will be able to claim UC once the gateway ‘closes’ on 27th January 2021
But the ‘managed migration pilot reg only ‘revokes’ the protection from UC afforded in SDP cases via reg 4A of the UC TP regs. It does not seem to have any retrospective function. That would mean that from 27.1.2021 you can henceforth drift into UC despite Legacy and SDP status . For all those who already on Legacy and are (or will be) SDP protected and do not suffer a change of circs that ends SDP status etc, they can stay as they are until UC managed migration eventually wipes away all Legacy sins. A Kit Kat says that won’t be until 2025 or later. If I am right, then still quite a lot of time for one more push to get as many Legacy people into SDP status as possible. What do you think?
I submitted a judicial review pre-action protocol letter with the support of CPAG for a couple who should have been receiving an SDP in their old IRESA claim but this was never picked up on by the DWP, so they were not protected from having to move on to UC when they moved local authority area in March 2019. I submitted the first letter in January 2020 and after much going back and forth, the DWP legal team wrote to me on 23rd April to confirm they would be making a payment to the claimants for the missing SDP amount whilst the ESA claim was open. They also agreed to return them to legacy benefits and confirmed they would contact the claimants about this. We have still had no contact, I have escalated it to our DWP Partnership Manager and still no response. No one knows what I am talking about, I have tried to contact the Legal Team but clearly they are very busy at the moment with other legal cases.
I submitted a judicial review pre-action protocol letter with the support of CPAG for a couple who should have been receiving an SDP in their old IRESA claim but this was never picked up on by the DWP, so they were not protected from having to move on to UC when they moved local authority area in March 2019. I submitted the first letter in January 2020 and after much going back and forth, the DWP legal team wrote to me on 23rd April to confirm they would be making a payment to the claimants for the missing SDP amount whilst the ESA claim was open. They also agreed to return them to legacy benefits and confirmed they would contact the claimants about this. We have still had no contact, I have escalated it to our DWP Partnership Manager and still no response. No one knows what I am talking about, I have tried to contact the Legal Team but clearly they are very busy at the moment with other legal cases.
Starting to feel like I work for the ICO with how often I suggest submitting SARs…
If you were to submit a Subject Access Request to DWP now, asking about data that regards the progress of the case, you’d effectively force them to look at it again and within the 1 month GDPR deadline (although I think this can be extended on grounds of Covid-19).
Best case scenario DWP avoids embarrassment by progressing the case before responding to the SAR.