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Backdated benefit

ASH
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Welfare officer - St Christopher's Hospice, SE London

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My client has just been awarded LCWRA which was paid for the last UC assessment period.  It should have been awarded 4 months before when he claimed.  He has just also been paid a large backdated award of cESA and the ongoing award.  Should they ignore the backdated payment as capital as they did in the olden days or will it be income in this assessment period.  Also, will they now decide they have overpaid the last 4 months because cESA is more than the missing LCWRA or should I chase the missing months.

Daphne
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Unearned income counts as income for the period for which it was paid for - see reg 73 of UC Regs - so there will be an overpayment of UC over the period for which ESA has been backdated

Rebecca Lough
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Welfare rights - Greenwich Council

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Sorry to bring this back from the dead, but struggling to see that reference in Reg 73 at the link.

My context is backdated CA in a period before client was claiming UC, although client is now claiming (and therefore query about how the backdate will be assessed in UC).

Thanks!

Charles
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Accountant, Haffner Hoff Ltd, Manchester

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Reg 73(2) says that unearned income is calculated by reference to the period it is paid for, not by what actually gets paid in any particular AP. So a lump sum of CA (or any other unearned income) paid now in respect of, say, a 20 week period, followed by regular weekly payments, will only count in this AP as the monthly equivalent of the weekly amount.

Any earlier APs within the period of the CA award will also have the unearned income included, due to the D&A Regs, Reg 12 (if it goes back all the way to the start of the UC award - revision) or Schedule 1 para. 31 (if it does not go back to the start of the UC award - supersession).

Whether other types of unearned income (that is, not benefit income) will count as income in earlier APs, was discussed in a recent thread: See post #4 here. My belief is that it would not.

[ Edited: 5 May 2019 at 03:50 am by Charles ]