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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Work capability issues and ESA  →  Thread

ESA and UC Combo

AYoung
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Newcastle Council Welfare Rights Service

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Total Posts: 30

Joined: 6 June 2019

Hi - Just looking for a little clarity please:

Feb 2019 - Client who was in receipt of CBESA with LCW was found to be capable for work. Benefit claims ended. Applied for UC and after 6 months of waiting for WCA to be completed, was found to have LCW. But as it was a new claim, no addition was paid for LCW.

In the meantime, we had submitted an ESA appeal as the client was clearly not fit for work. If the appeal was successful, then the LCW element on UC would be backdated to the start of his claim and paid on an ongoing basis.

Fast forward to May 2022 when ESA appeal is finally heard and the decision was that he should have had ESA with Support Group. This has been paid and backdated so all fine. However now his UC has been reduced to virtually nil and it looks as though his CBESA has been reinstated and is being deducted as an income from his UC, along with IIDB and some debt repayments. This has left him with around £30 per month UC.

In the calculation of his UC, they are including the LCW element and not LCWRA. So for ESA purposes, they are treating him as having Support Group entitlement and they take his ESA £ for £ but then for UC purposes, it is LCW only, which then has a significant impact on his UC entitlement.

My question is should he be considered to have LCWRA on UC, in keeping with the ESA decision, or should it be LCW in keeping with the assessment that they did when he made his UC claim?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

thanks

Elliot Kent
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Shelter

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Joined: 14 July 2014

Interesting. The immediate position would be that the appeal decision that he has LCWRA for ESA purposes does not impinge on the finality of the DWP decision that he has LCW for UC purposes, so that would leave him in this impossible position of having two contradictory assessments at once.

But that position should not be allowed to continue and he should have the LCWRA element included in his award from the get go for at least two alternative reasons:
-First, the fact that he has an LCWRA assessment for nsESA purposes entitles him to the LCWRA element of itself (see reg 40(1)(a)(ii) UC Regs)
-Second, the LCW assessment decision is itself susceptible to any time revision in view of the FtT decision (see reg 11(2) D&A Regs)

Perhaps with hindsight this fuss could have been avoided by appealing the UC decision as well, but I think the DWP ought to be able to sort it out if asked for the reasons above.

AYoung
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Newcastle Council Welfare Rights Service

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Total Posts: 30

Joined: 6 June 2019

Thanks Elliot. Much Appreciated.

With regards to appealing the UC decision - We never expected LCWRA or Support Group. Client has been in WRAG for years and felt that this was the appropriate group for his needs, so we were as surprised as anybody when they gave SG on ESA. Client had no interest in appealing UC at the time, but i can certainly see where there would be merit in doing that for other cases going forward.