Date of claim i.e. date of intention to claim

We’ve just come back (5 of us) from a visit to our local Jobcentre and a virtual tour of creating the UCFS account and completing the claim online, and asking various questions.

Lots of thoughts occurred - : This is one of them, would be grateful for people’s thoughts on this?

Thinking of a scenario’ in which a client goes online creates their UCFS account, but does not complete the claim process within one month defective or otherwise i.e. regs 10 and 8 UC (CP) regs 2013, but completes/submits the claim defective or otherwise later than one month e.g. one week later or several or more months later and so on and so forth, albeit with help (e.g. mental health issues allied with a chaotic life style).

Has anyone got any thoughts on whether the above claim scenario could be salvaged by completing/submitting the claim later than the one month, assuming the UCFS accounts survive beyond one month and arguing the date of claim was from the date the UCFS account was created, assuming there were arguable reasons why the claim had not been completed/submitted within the one month?

If a client came to us regarding the above scenario, we would obviously advise and help making a new claim etc etc, but i’m curious to explore if there would also be any mileage in trying to salvage a previous attempt at claiming that did not get beyond the creating account stage and completing/submitting the claim within the one month.

There are some extremely limited circumstances when a UC claim can be backdated - see page 172 of the CPAG WB+TC Handbook. If the claim UC is as a couple BOTH must meet these requirements.

My understanding is that the claim will usually only start when you submit it. Although you have a month from when you create your UCFS account to complete the details and submit the claim this WILL NOT backdate the claim before the day you submit it - page 171 of the CPAG WB+TC handbook has more details under “The date of your claim”. It is quite unlike many other benefits where the claim is backdated to the day you first contact the DWP if you provide required information by a deadline.

In some circumstances this can be useful - for example, if your employment ends but your employer hasn’t paid your final pay you may want to delay the start of a UC claim so the start of the first assessment period is after you receive your final pay. You can complete the information and submit it when the appropriate time arrives.

Thanks Jeremy for the response, would have replied earlier but was off with man flu.