Income Support claim after a UC claim terminated

Hi all,

My client applied for full service UC again as her previous claim closed.  She then moved to a gateway area as she was fleeing domestic violence.  In the interim her UC was closed as apparently she failed a claimant commitment (dealing with this issue separately).

As she is no longer in a full service area, can she apply for legacy benefits e.g. IS as her youngest is under 2 years and it is not a transfer of a UC claim to another area?

Thanks, Alice

Yes she can - as soon as she falls outside the definition of “UC claimant” in Reg 6 of the UC Transitional Provisions Regs, there is nothing to stop her making a new claim for IS, HB and Tax Credits in a live service area.  A UC claimant is someone who:

- is entitled to UC
- has a UC claim pending
- is appealing or applying for recon of a decision to refuse/end UC
- has been a member of a UC couple within the last month (has she?)
- has failed to qualify for UC due to their earnings being too high within the last six months

If it’s now more than a month since she left her former partner, if indeed they were a couple for UC purposes, the only other part of the definition that looks like it might apply to your client is appeal/recon pending.  You say she is “dealing with [the UC closure] separately”: if she wants to go back to legacy bens, she will have to abandon any outstanding UC issues and put it down to experience.