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Gateway UC and contributory benefit
Would anyone be able to give an opinion on the following situation?
- Client with no benefits in payment
- lives in gateway UC area
- eligible for cJSA but not yet claimed
- would like to make claims to cover living expenses and rent costs
Is this person able to make a claim for (old style/standard) cJSA? This would then take them out of the UC gateway so they could claim Housing Benefit and (if appropriate) ibJSA.
Or will they have to claim new style cJSA and get their living expenses/housing costs met through UC?
Does this just come down to the order in which he makes the claims? So if he claims UC first he would then have to claim new style cJSA with no option for standard cJSA. If he claims standard cJSA first then he would fall foul of the gateway and then be able to clam legacy benefits.
thanks
That’s my understanding of the rules
Thanks Maggie. So he doesn’t HAVE to claim new style cJSA simply because he lives in a gateway UC area?
I think it would be technically new style JSA, but the key point is that doesn’t compel him to make a claim for UC: having obtained new-style JSA there is nothing to stop him from claiming HB, or vice versa.
For extra belt-and-braces UC avoidance, he claim HB first and then approach DWP while the HB claim is pending: this will mean he fails the “existing benefits” gateway and could not be pushed onto UC even if he wanted.
I think it would be technically new style JSA, but the key point is that doesn’t compel him to make a claim for UC: having obtained new-style JSA there is nothing to stop him from claiming HB, or vice versa.
For extra belt-and-braces UC avoidance, he claim HB first and then approach DWP while the HB claim is pending: this will mean he fails the “existing benefits” gateway and could not be pushed onto UC even if he wanted.
If it were done HB claim first, then JSA, wouldn’t the HB claim (with the claimant meeting the gateway conditions) not be taken as a claim for UC?
My understanding is that by making the cbJSA claim first (be it new style or whatever name) would give the claimant the option to claim HB (legacy benefit) or chose to approach the ‘train-wreak’ that is UC.
‘Winter has come North of the Wall’ and White Walkers are appearing…
The HB claim would be exactly that: a claim for HB to the local authority. In live service there is nothing to say you cannot make an HB claim unless you are already a UC claimant as defined in UC TP Reg 6.