Full time student age 21 on DLA. Taken off ESA after WCA. Does this not come under reg 33?

Hi,

I am a bit confused whether a 21 year old student who is on a “Pathways to Independence” course full time at college should have had a WCA or not. This particular student was called for a WCA and then taken off ESA after being found to not have LCW. They get DLA.

Would this person not come under reg 33 and therefore not need a WCA?

I am thinking that if someone is a ‘qualifying young person’ they do not fall under this, and will need to satisfy the WCA as usual.

However I am fairly sure this particular person was over the age of 20 at the time of the WCA, therefore they can’t be a qualifying young person can they? So they should then not be required to satisfy the WCA?

Or have I got things the wrong way round?

Just checking if I should be challenging the WCA decision or challenging why they even did one in the first place!

Thanks

challenging why they did one, I think.

He’s not a qualifying young person because he’s over 20 (welbens pg 573)

He qualifies for ir-ESA as a full time student because he gets DLA and therefore

“you automatically count as having LCW” (pg 881)

Thanks for confirming my suspicions Sally. If this does turn out to be the case with this client, then it’s another fine example of DWP ignoring their own rules again.

I thought they’d be entitled to carry out a WCA to test if a student should qualify for the Support Group.

Whether being found to have no LCW at all can be legitimate outcome of such a WCA is another matter.

Thanks Jon. I will write to them to challenge their decision.

Jon (CHDCA) - 21 July 2017 01:02 PM

Whether being found to have no LCW at all can be legitimate outcome of such a WCA is another matter.

I don’t think it can; reg 33(2) is imperative “a claimant is to be treated as having LCW if…” and reg 34(4)(c) does not exclude any particular statuses.