UC grace period

I thought I’d post a few bits of UC grace period guidance here (gained through FOI response dated 29/12/20) - I think these are guidance for UC ‘account developers’

A couple of points that may be useful:
- earnings from an ‘ineligible adult’ in the Universal Credit claim are included when assessing the Grace Period even if they are not entitled to Universal Credit in their own right
- earnings that qualify the Universal Credit claim for a Grace Period can be from SMP and other statutory payments

And finally…

There may be a few more bits to come depending on how useful some outstanding responses are

Thanks Owen - this is useful :-)

The UC46 form - note that it’s no longer in use (presumably these (same?) questions are now asked through a to-do)

Some further guidance - again, I think this is mostly account developer guidance (apart from ‘treatment of earnings’ - which I think had already been made available via the HoC library)

Following on from my last post…

sorry if this is very simplistic…but how does the DWP identify if a grace period applies at all??

is it something a customer has to request ?

is it part of a standard UC claim process?

Hi Peter

I think that DWP will consider whether a grace period should apply if it seems that someone could be capped and no exemption applies. 

There are some basic questions asked on the claim which will provide some relevant information (e.g. whether someone is working or has ended employment in the past 9 months).  But most of the information needed from the claimant would be gathered through a ‘to-do’ once the claim has been submitted (see the post above with the UC46)

thanks….just curious as my clt was working for 3+ years earning good money above the Earnings Exemption Threshold and came to us for a benefit check already on UC since he was made redundant in October…apparently was capped after the 1st payment of UC…and I can’t work out why the grace period did not apply immediately (or wasn’t considered…your post got me wondering how the DWP would be prompted to look at the grace period in the first place) ....anyhow asked for MR/awaiting result

A couple of FOI responses which clarify the questions asked of claimants now that the UC46 is no longer in use