UC full service re-claim within 6 months

Help me out please ..... I am trying to do too many things at once and I cant find ....

Which regulation covers the timescale for reclaiming UC on full-service after a nil award due to earnings but within 6 months?

I’ve been on a discussion thread on here about it, and there are certain timescales in order to drop back into your same assessment period and benefit from the full month’s payment.

Is it reg 6 of The Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Claims and Payments) Regulations 2013 that you’re looking for Sarah?

I dont know Paul ...

I found the previous thread now after 17 attemtps (I am rubbish at searching the forum)

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/10325/

It is Reg 21 (3c) of the UC Regs which states that you keep the same assessment period if you reclaim within 6 months provided you have continued to meet the basic entitlement conditions

Reg 22A which states that if you are NOT in paid work and have come out of paid work and have no claimed wihtin 7 days of your paid work ending you are subject to some kind of reduction in award

My brain cannot compute the purpose or meaning of that formula

But in short this does not affect people on fluctuating earnings.

So does this mean that in those fluctuating earnings people have until the last day of their assessment period to make the reclaim in order to be assessed for that assessment period?

I read it as allowing a shorter assessment period when the repeat claim is made part way through what would have been the full assessment period.  I think it means you can claim UC on nil income for a part month when your job ends part way through the month, before resuming the same AP cycle you were on before.  Without this reg, the effect of Reg 21(3C) would be that you cannot get any/as much UC for the whole of the month in which you stopped work - it is trying to smooth the in-and-out-of-work experience.

But I am confused by Reg 22A(1)(b) and (3) - this smooth rapid reclaim rule does not apply if you reclaim within 7 days of work ending, and DWP has discretion to extend the 7 days.  It seems the wrong way round to me - you are trying to shake off your earnings and claim on nil income, extending the seven days won’t help you at all will it?

PS - been pointed out to me that you don’t shake off the final earnings at all - the award is based on the full month’s income in the original AP cycle, but the UC calculation is adjusted pro rata so that the next AP starts on schedule with a clean sheet.

HB Anorak ... the way I read it, the calculation of max UC is adjusted so that you do not benefit from a payment to cover the whole assessment period unless you reclaim within 7 days of your job ending.  You are penalised for your delay by your whole income but only part of your assessment period being taken into account.

My interpretation of the policy-intention is that this measure is to get you to engage with the conditionality requirements of UC within 7 days.  Otherwise you could ‘do nothing’ from the date your job ends until the last day of the assessment period (which could be up to a month later) and then simply submit a re-claim on the last day of the assessment period, without satisfying the conditionality requirements of UC.

Your thoughts?

The problem of course is that this undermines the claims of a simplified benefit system.  Will people understand this rule?  In order to ensure that people ‘benefit’ from the enhanced conditionality, then they risk that people will not understand all these little additional rules they have brought in.

SarahJBatty - 23 November 2017 03:27 PM

I found the previous thread now after 17 attemtps (I am rubbish at searching the forum)

Hi Sarah ... apologies, the forum search is not all it might be ..... we’re working on it!

Shawn I’m sure the forum search is adequate. I was referring to my own skills!

Sarah, I might be reading this wrong but isn’t it that both income AND entitlement are apportioned?

Yes - definitely both apportioned.  After looking at this more carefully, I think I can see what it is doing.  I am very grateful to a non-RN member who occasionally puts me straight when I have skim-read something and commented in haste.  His explanation of this Reg makes perfect sense.

If you claim UC within six months of last being entitled to it, the AP cycle is inherited from the previous award.  If you lose your job part way through the inherited AP, your final payment of earnings in that AP might be less than you have been getting during the past few months - it might be low enough that you qualify for a reasonable wedge of UC.  If you claim within 7 days, you will get your whole month’s UC; if you delay, you will only get a part month’s UC based on apportioned max UC and apportioned income.  Arithmetically I think it works out the same as if you calculated a whole month’s UC and then reduced the award pro rata.

Yes - I agree about what happens if you leave it til after the 7 days (I haven’t checked whether this is the same as apportioning what would otherwise be the award). What I find interesting is related to Sarah’s point - how on earth could a claimant know about these rules? Given backdating on a new claim is incredibly limited how would someone know to argue for more than 7 days on a reclaim due to earnings….?

Sorry for late reply Will and Anorak, just catching up on loose ends ...

Yes you are right that both the ‘Max UC’ and the ‘income’ are apportioned according to the number of days left in the assessment period.  What you are saying is right Will ... in some situations a claimant will want to argue that the 7 days should be extended because they have ‘good cause’ for the delay in reclaiming and should therefore benefit for an assessment for the whole assessment period.  In other situations it would be beneficial for them to wait (for example if expecting a last payment of earnings) and then reclaim outside of the 7 days and get the apportioned UC.

On a practical note, I wonder if the ‘payment’ screen of the UC system has actually been developed to show this calculation so that a person can understand that they have a partial month payment, and how it has been worked out.  This will clearly be more complicated in cases where there is income.