Client discharged from remand (innocent) after 7 weeks, lost ESA, advised to claim UC - help!

Hi, I saw a client at a drop in who advised me that he was formerly on IR-ESA.  He could not tell me which group he was in but has ongoing physical and mental health issues and I suspect he was in SG based on what he could recall of his income.  He was/is not in receipt of PIP.  He was arrested on 1/4/21 and placed on remand.  On 28/5/2021 he was discharged from remand and found innocent.  His benefits had stopped whilst he was on remand and he was then advised by DWP to claim UC.  My understanding was that benefits are only suspended pending an outcome and if no sentence is imposed/conviction quashed, your previous benefit should be reinstated and any arrears paid. 

Given that my client has received 2 payments of UC (which is half of what his previous benefit income was), do any of you wise people have any ideas on his options?  Many thanks,  Tasha, LCA.

Contributory ESA is suspended and a claimant on cESA who is remanded but ultimately acquitted is entitled to reinstatement of cESA for the period of suspension.

Income-related ESA is stopped because a prisoner has an applicable amount of nil.

The point I suppose being that the cESA is a return on your payments into the NI scheme and it would be punitive to take that away from you by reason of you being remanded for something you didn’t do; whereas irESA is only paid to meet basic living costs which don’t exist whilst you are in prison (whether rightly or wrongly) so the reason for paying it has gone away.

If he has a cESA entitlement, then it may have been possible to get an irESA entitlement bolted back on after the end of the sentence; or as it seems it may be too late for that now, to get the relevant component from the start of the UC award.

Hi, thanks for this.  Makes more sense…however, if he was in SG for ESA previously, can I argue that his previous WCA result should be applied to new UC claim??

Questions, questions!

Yes, that could be the case. I have not read up on this subject for a while as per below——

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/864911/admf5.pdf
However I seem to remember that in some cases there musn’t be a gap in Benefit entitlement, even of one day.

It’s Reg.19 of the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014 that requires the UC claim to have been made whilst the old style ESA award is still in place. If that happens, the LCWRA element can be carried over from day one.

So it looks like trying to rectify the c-ESA award would be worth it from that point of view.

Many thanks for your contributions.  Much appreciated.  Tasha