Income that came in during seven day waiting period

Cl. made first claim for ESA (in effects as a jobseeker). During the seven day waiting period they had a payment of several hundred pounds from former employer and another payment after the seven days was up.

UC have counted both payments as having been made during the assessment period and this has resulted in a zero award.

Reg.54 of the UC regs says that income received during the assessment period is included in the calculations and Reg 21 says that the assessment period begins with the first day of entitlement. Cl doesn’t seem to have been entitled until the seven days were up as they don’t meet any of the exceptions set out in the regs.

The second payment is clearly within the assessment period but should the payment, which came in after the date of claim but before the start of the assessment period, be counted as income.

I cant find anything concrete in either CPAG or the Regs and I was wondering if anyone has any ideas?

thanks

Pete.

Hi Pete, I think you’re right. Payment made during the waiting days wasn’t received within an assessment period so I cannot see why it should be taken into account.

Could there have been a delay in the RTI? The DM will treat earnings as having been received on the date reported under PAYE (s.61(3) UC Regs). ADM Chapter H3 suggests the DM can chose not to apply this if they think the information is inaccurate or untimely, but I haven’t been able to find that bit in the regs.

We’ve been making noises that the abolition of the waiting period will unfortunately be a problem for some claimants, as there is more chance of their final pay packet disrupting the first UC award. No one at DWP (or anywhere else) has replied to say that money landing in the 7-day wait is also meant to affect the first AP…

For interest, caselaw on the RTI issue is CUC/166/2017.