Adding partner to UC claim

A claimants UC payments have stopped since his partner requested she is added to his claim. Is this usually the case? They have given no date for when they will restart payments stating they will do so once they have assessed her habitual residency.

They have discretion to suspend UC under D&A Reg 44 if an issue arises.  You would normally expect this to happen if there is any chance that the partner will reduce or extinguish UC entitlement - they will need to be satisfied she doesn’t have a lot of income and capital.  If she has none, then the worst that can happen is the award stays the same and it would be safe to keep paying while they look into the HRT for her, but I suspect in practice they will tend to suspend UC until they are in a position to make a superseding decision on the full facts.