Is UC in any way responsible for reminding claimants to submit further fit notes

Does anyone administering UC have any responsibility for reminding claimants they need further fit notes?

I drafted the following UC Mandatory Reconsideration request on behalf of my client regarding the date from which she has been assigned LCWRA:

‘I disagree with the date you appear to have chosen as the date I first provided evidence of my unfitness for work.  Having looked at my journal I would suggest that the entry at the 15th April 2019 indicates I first submitted a fit note which ran from the 12th April 2017 to 12th April 2019.  The entry at the 13th May 2019 indicates a further fit note covering the period up to the 12th June 2019.  Prior to and following the expiry date of that fit note there are no reminders on my journal regarding the expiry of that fit note.

Given my the poor state of my mental health I relied on entries such as that at the 25th July 2021 to alert me to the imminent expiry of my current fit note.  I had no such alert in June 2019.  At this point I was experiencing severe difficulties with my mental health and hence consequent difficulty in accessing my journal.  Then the Covid-19 pandemic occurred so it was not until I had a change of Work Coach, in approx. June 2021, that I was again asked to provide a fit note and this I consequently did until I was placed in the LCWRA from 11.6.21.

I therefore believe that I should have been assigned LCWRA from April 2017.’

The mandatory reconsideration decision refers to a WCA in April 2019 at which my client scored nil points and which she did not challenge within 13 months so I concede that any LCWRA can then only be awarded from a date after that and then only if my client submitted a fit note which highlighted a new condition or deterioration in an existing one.

She did not so this until June 2021 for the reasons stated above. However, she feels very strongly that as she was the vulnerable party in these interactions the UC system should have alerted her.

The UC DM has replied:

‘I would advise it is not a function for your Work Coach or Case Manager to remind you that a fit
note is needed or chase you for a new fit note when one expires, it is part of your UC
commitments to update UC of any changes to your circumstances that may affect your benefit
entitlement at the time a change occurs.’

I have a feeling that given their circumstances, and the reduced service from UC in the early stages of the pandemic, that somehow my client has been ‘unlucky’.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to any arguments I can submit at appeal for pushing the date of the assignment of LCWRA back to April 2019?

I worked in the DWP until the start of the pandemic. It is best practice for the Work Coach to put a reminder alert on the UC Build for when a claimant’s Fit Note runs out. If the WC forgets to do this, they will be reprimanded by their supervisor. The WC will then send a Journal message to the claimant if tne new Fit Note hasn’t been registered as expected. This practice would be in the initial WC training. I have a lot of paper based training material, but I am currently working away from home and will have a further look next week. There are some UC Health Journey tutorials on Youtube which may well refer to this practice.

If I understand this right she was found fit to work some time after a WCA in April 2019. She failed to challenge this decision.

Any new or ongoing fit notes that cover a period after the WCA decision will just be ignored. There would be no reason for DWP to prompt her for any further fit-notes - until she submits a new fit note (or other evidence) with worse/different health.

Alternatively, if she reported a CiC to her health, that should prompt a call for fit-notes. It sounds to me like this is what happened in June 2021.

Thanks for the input. Pleased to report client has now be deemed to have LCWRA from June 2021 and is ‘over the moon’ with the arrears she has received.

Woops sorry LWCRA from 2019!