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Which premiums are correct?
Please can someone confirm which is the right set of premiums before I start asking for reconsiderations?
Scenario: Couple, one working part time, one claiming credits-only ESA in the support group along with PIP SRM (ESA not paid due to partner’s earnings - not eligible for contribution-based due to lack of NIC’s). They have a non-dep living with them.
HB is currently awarded with the couple’s rate of the DP, which was added when PIP was granted recently.
My understanding is that the DP should not be awarded due to the ongoing ESA claim, and they should get the Support Component and the EDP instead.
On discussion with the LA, they have stated the EDP cannot be paid due to the non-dep, but I’m assuming they are getting confused with the SDP which isn’t relevant in this case.
Many thanks
Depends who the claimant is. If the HB claimant personally does not have LCW, but satisfies conditions for DP by virtue of partner’s PIP, they get DP at couple rate. That appears to be what has happened here.
If they were to switch roles (which I suspect they can’t), the claimant personally having LCWRA would trigger both the support component and EDP, which is a bit better than couple rate DP.
Assuming you are in Warrington, it looks as if they cannot switch roles because the prospective new claimant is prevented from making a new HB claim in a full service UC area. But in their case that might not be a bad thing, because having LCWRA in UC is better than legacy benefits without the SDP - so actually what they want to do is switch to UC (all other key variables being equal).
Fab, thanks. I’ll check which name is on the claim. Agree that UC might be a good way to go, both in terms of LCWRA and the fixed non-dep deduction. Would the assessment of LCWRA carry over to the UC claim, though? There’s also the issue of in-work conditionality to consider.
If they’re going to transfer claimants, it would be very advisable to have a look through this thread and the other one linked to it a couple of posts in because it seems fairly common practice for DWP to not carry over LCWRA for people making such a switch from ESA to UC.
Would the assessment of LCWRA carry over to the UC claim, though?
It should do, but there are a few threads in the UC section of the forum showing how the experience can be different in reality with many UC staff apparently not realising this and, it would appear, the full service bells and whistles do not extend to the system automatically detecting that status. Takes a lot of trouble to get it sorted out.
PS: SNAP! Great minds ...
[ Edited: 4 Jul 2017 at 12:09 pm by HB Anorak ]Ahh, the fun of UC full service. Thanks for your replies - best get the old Casio out of the drawer to do the better-off calcs.