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Claims closed with no decision

CA Adviser
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Recently we have seen several clients whose UC claims have been closed with no entitlement decision. This has happened with both phone and online awards. At best the client has received a text telling them that their claim has been closed, but not why. The clients have not been issued with a decision notice to enable them to challenge in the usual way, and when we’ve phoned UC with the clients, have been told that no decision is on the system. The client is then promised a call back by a case manager which never materialises.

Anyone else seeing this? The closure of claims with no challengeable decision happened a lot some time ago, but then seemed to stop.

Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District
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CA Adviser - 19 November 2020 12:52 PM

Recently we have seen several clients whose UC claims have been closed with no entitlement decision. This has happened with both phone and online awards. At best the client has received a text telling them that their claim has been closed, but not why. The clients have not been issued with a decision notice to enable them to challenge in the usual way, and when we’ve phoned UC with the clients, have been told that no decision is on the system. The client is then promised a call back by a case manager which never materialises.

Anyone else seeing this? The closure of claims with no challengeable decision happened a lot some time ago, but then seemed to stop.

Mercifully not for a while!!!!

But a resumption wouldn’t be a surprise!!!

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What should the strategy be? MR the closure of the claim? UC saying can’t request an MR as no entitlement decision.

Daphne
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This article from CPAG is quite old now as it was written when the problem first reared its head but I think is still relevant.

How soon after the claim is made are they closing the claims? - I would be happy to raise this via the stakeholder forum too - it would be useful to have any more detail that you have.

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This week’s client is an 18 year old student on a non-advanced course, estranged from parents and living with grandmother. She had been paid on her UC claim since she was thrown out of home in July. The claim was closed in October, although cl received a payment after the closure date. Getting nowhere with the DWP. There is no written decision to challenge. Do we treat the closure of the claim as the entitlement decision and request an MR?

Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District
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CA Adviser - 23 November 2020 11:45 AM

This week’s client is an 18 year old student on a non-advanced course, estranged from parents and living with grandmother. She had been paid on her UC claim since she was thrown out of home in July. The claim was closed in October, although cl received a payment after the closure date. Getting nowhere with the DWP. There is no written decision to challenge. Do we treat the closure of the claim as the entitlement decision and request an MR?

The last occasion (Summer 2019), a JR application (helped by PLP), with parallel approach via the MP to make sure client was paid promptly, another issue during 2018 and 2019 getting DWP to pay arrears.

PLP got it resolved at the pre-action stage very quickly!!!

See below may be of interest - :

https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/judicial-review/judicial-review-pre-action-letters/claim-closure-uc

https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/judicial-review 

https://cpag.org.uk/policy-campaigns/early-warning-system

Edit - flakiness on my part. Yes we lodged an MR further to the above.

[ Edited: 24 Nov 2020 at 03:28 pm by Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District ]
Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District
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Haven’t used the following in ‘claims closed with no decision’. But CUC/1389/2019 may be of interest with your case.

For expediency see excerpt from a Interlocutory wotsit sub. Rightsnet thingy on this which as you will see below I have enthusiastically plagiarised parts .

Judge Wikely held in CUC/1389/2019 (paragraphs 20 – 30).  When considering the notification of the decision, that regulation 7(1) (b) of the Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2013.

Provides that the requirement to carry out a mandatory reconsideration before a right of appeal is established only applies where the decision notice includes a statement to that effect. In Mrs Golden Cap’s case, the decision notice contained only what was written in her journal and therefore the claimant had the right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal unencumbered by the usual need to apply for a mandatory reconsideration.

See CUC/1389/2019 attached.

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Dan Manville
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Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District - 25 November 2020 02:11 PM

‘. But CUC/1389/2019 may be of interest with your case.

 

Sadly this trick doesn’t work for Tax Credits. The requirement for MR is absolute and it’s in the act as well rather that secondary legislation to it’s difficult to challenge.

Charles
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For tax credits, I have always managed to get the Tribunal to accept that an exchange of letters with HMRC about an issue (where they refuse to budge and maintain no MR is possible) as meaning a review has been carried out and notice been given about its conclusion.

Dan Manville
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Charles - 03 December 2020 02:14 AM

For tax credits, I have always managed to get the Tribunal to accept that an exchange of letters with HMRC about an issue (where they refuse to budge and maintain no MR is possible) as meaning a review has been carried out and notice been given about its conclusion.

Recently a FtT has done exactly that in an analogous case to one of mine; I suspect that’s why HMRC are now studiously avoiding corresponding with me further in my case.

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Another client today whose claim has been closed with no decision made, UC helpline saying he failed to do something on his to-do list. Cl had a phone claim and was burgled, losing his phone and other items (he has a crime reference number). No sanction or any other decision. Again the line is that the client can’t challenge the termination of the previous claim as there is no decision to challenge. He has made a new claim but is refused an advance payment as there is an advance outstanding on the previous claim.

Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District
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CA Adviser - 08 December 2020 03:26 PM

Another client today whose claim has been closed with no decision made, UC helpline saying he failed to do something on his to-do list. Cl had a phone claim and was burgled, losing his phone and other items (he has a crime reference number). No sanction or any other decision. Again the line is that the client can’t challenge the termination of the previous claim as there is no decision to challenge. He has made a new claim but is refused an advance payment as there is an advance outstanding on the previous claim.

Is it the same processing centre for each case?

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Thank you for the replies. Sorry not to have responded, I had Covid before Christmas. Recovered now thankfully.

A client contacted yesterday with a letter from ESA which he read out over the phone. The letter stated that his ESA claim (which includes his partner) has stopped from 2/12/20 (letter dated 9/12/20). The reason given is that he did not provide bank statements relating to 2016. Cl states that he was asked to provide bank statements for 2017/18, on 24/11/20 which he did, posting them on 27/11/20. The decision letter dated 9/12/20 was received by the client on 27/11/20. ESA state in the letter that this is not a decision that can be appealed. Cl, who has serious health conditions, phoned ESA and was told that ESA had stopped because of a settlement of £15k which his partner had received on leaving work due to ill health in 2017.

Cl believes he has been in receipt of contribution-based ESA with the support group since he claimed many years ago. The decision letter shows an income-related calculation only. His partner tried to make her own cbESA claim when she left full time work, but was instead added to his claim. They both receive PIP and are in receipt of CA in respect of each other. CA is being paid to the cl.

QBC shows that they would have had entitlement to income-related ESA with the £15k whether his ESA was income-related or contribution-based. If he was in receipt of cbESA, an SDP should have been included in the award.

I would be glad of thoughts on how to proceed. Bung in an MR? Appeal straight to tribunal?  ESA escalation numbers? UC claim….?

Elliot Kent
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The fact that the letter says that the decision cannot be appealed tends to suggest that benefit has been suspended rather than stopped altogether. A decision to end ESA in these circumstances is obviously appealable and the DWP pro formas reflect this.

Suspension of benefit cannot be appealed but does still need to be justified and can be challenged by JR in an appropriate case.

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Thanks Elliot, I obviously still have Covid brain. Am going to try to phone ESA with cl this afternoon if cl is well enough. Perhaps there was an earlier letter asking for 2016 bank statements which has gone awol.

DawKav
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Hi, I think these cases run along the same lines but am in need of advice anyway if not!

I have 2 Universal Credit claimant clients. One had a negative decision due to excess capital and the claim was closed within days so there was no access to the journal. In this case we decided to follow the decision letter’s advice on challenging the decision and made a reclaim. The advice was that this was the quickest way. We then requested a link on the journal to attach the MR and further evidence (I didn’t want to just cut and paste into the journal and had documents as further evidence). Several days later we are still waiting for the link after about 3 requests. One reply said that it was with a ‘specialist team’  who would be in touch if they wanted further information. I reiterated that she wanted to add a written MR with evidence but was told again about this specialist team. Our latest entry was today, again noting that she can make a reconsideration request in writing and that is what she wanted to do and I asked who this Specialist Team was.
The other failed the HRT and again the claim was closed with no access to the account. We don’t know why and sent a letter for further information but didn’t get a reply . A reconsideration letter was then written. Being concerned about the post and delays I also took this into the Jobcentre. I was there for about 40 mins trying to persuade a work coach to take it from me and scan it to the relevant team. At one point he called a decision maker and said to me that she won’t be entitled to UC anyway so (can’t remember the exact words) there was no point in them taking it. He did eventually saying that they’d try to reopen the claim and put it on the journal. My client speaks Romanian and I don’t so in this case I didn’t want to spend time making a new claim, especially when we’re working remotely. We haven’t had a reply to this one as yet. This one is especially difficult because of the language barrier and she has no money relying on the church to feed her.
A bit long this, so thanks for reading and any help would be much appreciated.
Dawn
Manchester Mind

Paul Stockton
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We have a case very similar to the first of these. Client refused UC because of capital. Only communication was note on her journal, which was then closed within days. No decision letter. Fortunately the client knew how to contact the case manager and persuaded her to accept a request for MR. Negative MR decision letter came back in about 10 days and we are now into the appeal system. We have put in extra evidence and legal argument before the appeal response is issued in the hope that the appeals officer will reverse the decision.

Strictly speaking the client didn’t need to go through the MR process because of the UT decision in PP v SSWP (UC) [2020] UKUT 0109 (AAC), explained earlier in this thread by AndyP. But in the event no harm was done by going through MR because it was so quick. But if we had heard nothing after a further week or two we would have advised lodging an appeal without an MR letter.