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When to reclaim UC
Cl is in receipt of UC with standard allowance and housing costs element only, with deductions for one bedroom under-occupancy and HB overpayment, leaving total of £584pcm. AP is 9th of month to 8th, payment date 15th of the month.
Cl’;s wife died last summer. Cl is to receive arrears of his wife’s pension from 14/7/19, and will receive a lump sum of £597.26 for the period to date on 18/2/20. There will then be ongoing monthly payments of £45.94, which will be taken into account in full as unearned income. We assume the one off payment of arrears will also be taken into account as unearned income in the AP in which it is received, which will mean his claim will close as income will exceed entitlement at the end of the AP on 8/3/20.
Question is, what is the earliest date he can reclaim UC?
I would think he can do a rapid reclaim anytime during the assessment period 09/03/2020 to 08/04/2020 - assuming DWP do actually close the claim.
Needs to keep close eye on journal to see if claim is closed and then reclaim. Colleague had client recently who had their claim closed just a few days before end of an assessment period which they were not aware of so when they reclaimed they had missed out on the AP.
[ Edited: 11 Feb 2020 at 11:01 am by Ianb ]Won’t arrears of pension be assigned to the period it was paid for, rather than to the month it was received? Contrast reg 54 with reg 73.
[ Edited: 11 Feb 2020 at 11:20 am by Jon (CANY) ]Won’t arrears of pension be assigned to the period it was paid for, rather than to the month it was received? Contrast reg 54 with reg 73.
Regulation 73 provides that where income is received other than monthly it has to be converted to a monthly amount. I am not clear that a one off arrears payment will be captured by this (not saying it will not).
If they did treat it this way they’ll have to recalculate the previous assessment periods and then recover the resulting overpayment by deduction from future payments.