UC new claim requesting earnings income for past 12 months

I helped a couple claim UC yesterday. Husband is terminally ill, wife recently made redundant, one child and both are Polish with settled status. Claim completed online but to-do-list asks them to provide their joint earnings income for each month for the past 12 months. I’ve never seen this requested before and I can’t understand why it’s needed.  Could someone please advise.

Many thanks

It’s a standard request where there is a report of a job having ended before the claim is made. The reason for it is mainly to establish if the benefit cap grace period applies - which isn’t really a factor in your clients’ case because they will be exempt anyway as presumably getting PIP.

That makes sense now, thanks Elliot. Yes PIP awarded under special rules.

It would be good if the system was sophisticated enough to realise when information isn’t needed instead of creating work for claimants who are in crisis due to terminal illness.

I also had a case where this information was requested, although in my case the claimant had been in employment for the 12 months information was requested for.

Information requested 6 months after the initial application was made and just as we thought we’d sorted getting a very complicated application into payment.  Just as I’d got the information from the claimant (language difficulties) the request vanished.  When a query was put onto the journal, wage slips were requested for the last 12 months instead.  Yet another journal entry asking for the initial information to be requested again before I received confirmation from the person at the DWP assisting me with the application that they didn’t need this information anymore.

Benefit simplification certainly hasn’t worked in this case.