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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

moving from a full service to a live service area and claiming legacy benefits

stevenmcavoy
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Welfare rights officer - Enable Scotland

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would be interested to see if anyone has done this in practice.

client was part of a couple and they claimed uc.  they were in a full service area.

client now splitting from partner and looking to make single claim, but also moving from a full service to a live service area.  alongside this i have started a pip claim for client and she is gong to be putting in fit notes whatever the claim she makes.

basically what i am wondering is can i get her out of uc that she was in under the full service and onto legacy benefits as she now wouldnt meet the gateway in her new address in a live service area? or is she stuck on UC?

this appears theoretically possible to me but the DWP could refuse the legacy claims and put us into a no income scenario which id obviously rather avoid.

evidence suggests a dl pip award down the road and so an sdp so the uc loss is potentially significant.

WillH
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If your client is NOT on UC when she claims legacy benefits, and she is providing sick notes, any refusal of benefits by the DWP or the LA would be wrong. Goes without saying worth checking that at the point she does this the live service area hasn’t become a full service area!

The problem of course is that stopping UC will feel risky. Daphne has posted on here about the timing of stopping a UC claim (given that any change affects the whole of the assessment period in which it occurs).

But yes if SDP is possible, depending on the PIP outcome, then the financial advantage of making the change is considerable.

stevenmcavoy
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WillH - 22 June 2017 03:15 PM

If your client is NOT on UC when she claims legacy benefits, and she is providing sick notes, any refusal of benefits by the DWP or the LA would be wrong. Goes without saying worth checking that at the point she does this the live service area hasn’t become a full service area!

The problem of course is that stopping UC will feel risky. Daphne has posted on here about the timing of stopping a UC claim (given that any change affects the whole of the assessment period in which it occurs).

But yes if SDP is possible, depending on the PIP outcome, then the financial advantage of making the change is considerable.

so you mean i need to make sure we physically end the uc claim then claim ESA/hb rather than just claim ESA/HB and expect that to pick up over UC?

ive done similar in a live service area with a client who came to me on uc and we got her onto ESA but she was in a live service area from start to finish.  went smoothly though much to my surprise.

im aware of the timing issue as well but thanks for pointing that out as that could be a sore one if you didnt know!

WillH
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Yep, that’s my understanding. People wiser than me could probably quote more exactly but I think it’s something to do with having successfully claimed UC, you effectively abolish legacy benefits for yourself (with the obvious exception of HB in supported accomm). So unless you withdraw that claim, you can’t make the legacy benefit claims.

Also, again you’ve probably thought of this but there may be ESA waiting days? I don’t think you can use the UC award to avoid these.

HB Anorak
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One complication here is that the person who reports the split in a live service area is prevented from re-claiming legacy benefits for the next month.  Throughout that month they can reclaim UC even if they do not satisfy the gateway conditions.  So she won’t be able to revert to legacy benefits for at least a month and I think her best bet in the meantime would probably be to make the single UC claim and wait until after she has been paid before ditching it and going back to legacy, assuming live service still applies by then.

stevenmcavoy
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HB Anorak - 22 June 2017 05:16 PM

One complication here is that the person who reports the split in a live service area is prevented from re-claiming legacy benefits for the next month.  Throughout that month they can reclaim UC even if they do not satisfy the gateway conditions.  So she won’t be able to revert to legacy benefits for at least a month and I think her best bet in the meantime would probably be to make the single UC claim and wait until after she has been paid before ditching it and going back to legacy, assuming live service still applies by then.

thanks for that.

but if she didnt report the change then the month issue doesnt apply?

UC has really simplified my life.  im going to send couling a thank you card.

HB Anorak
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If she didn’t report the change, she would just stay on UC ... and then potentially ditch the award at a carefully timed moment.