Natural migration to UC?

This was dealt with by a colleague on the help to claim ‘phone service so I haven’t got a lot of detail to hand

Cl was on JSA and getting HB. He started to work so JSA stopped but his income was very small, only about £10.00 pw over the standard amount for JSA and he would almost certainly be eligible for a reasonable amount of HB.

When his JSA stopped his HB stopped as well and I understand that he was told that he now needs to claim UC to get help with his rent (and this of course involves a five week wait for payment).

Isn’t this merely a change of circs for HB and not a migration?

I recall that a few years ago when someone’s IS stopped the HB dept merely suspended the claim pending enquiries about their change of circs and only terminated it when it was clear that there was no entitlement or the cl. persistently didn’t reply. On p1289 of the current CPAG book it lists a decision maker failing to ask an obvious question as potential official error which could give rise to a revision.

Rather that enter the UC lobster pot and wait five weeks could the cl in fact just go back to the HB dept and ask for either a review caused by a change of circs or a revision on the terms above.

I’m very conscious of the lack of detail, i don’t know what actions HB may or may not have taken and if the cl. responded to them but I would be very interested to hear anyone’s views on the general principle

The general principle is exactly as you say - the LA should suspend payment and request proof of the claimant’s income. If in fact they have terminated his HB, he should certainly request a review/appeal it.

Agree entirely with Charles re HB.
However, it is worth doing the calculation and giving them the choice as financially it does make sense for some people (usually those earning not a lot above JSA threshold) to claim UC, however much I detest the system.