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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Universal credit administration  →  Thread

UC claims being closed immediately after a £nil award or loss of entitlement and being locked out of account

JackBarnet
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Help to Claim, Citizens Advice Barnet

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Total Posts: 1

Joined: 24 November 2020

I have had a claimant recently have the UC claim turned down but they have also been completely locked out of their account. When they try and log it is simply coming up saying ‘You no longer have access to this account’. This is less than 1 month (i think) after the decision. I was initially trained that UC should stay open for 6 months following a £0 payment or rejected claim anyway. I know they have been closing them sooner than that for a long time but I was always able to still access the account (e.g. to reclaim and see the journal). I have raised this with a Service Center Manager and they have simply said the claim was refused and is with a DM and that this is why they are locked out. I am very unsatisfied with this response but was wondering if anyone knew where in the legislation or guidance documents for UC it states what should happen after a £0 payment or refused claim?

DawKav
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Advice Team Manchester Mind Manchester

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Joined: 14 February 2017

Hi Jack
Did you get anywhere with this? It’s a common occurrence with our clients and makes requesting a reconsideration difficult and lengthy.
We’ve been unable to upload the MR to the journal (because it’s not accessible) and the advice on the screen is that the quickest way to deal with this is to make a new claim. Problems with this, MR’s are getting lost in the system and/or taking ages and a new claim based on the same circs is going to be turned down. My latest has been - claim one turned down, new claim with the MR for the first claim cut and pasted in the journal (they would not provide a link for the letter and accompanying evidence) and this new claim has been turned down. I haven’t looked at it fully yet but it it also appears that they haven’t looked at the evidence (because they didn’t have it!) which was part of the MR. They are closing claims almost immediately.
This is a bit longer than I intended!
Thanks
Dawn

Elliot Kent
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Shelter

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Joined: 14 July 2014

I am not sure what happened for the opening poster’s client but you should not be locked out of the journal when the claim is refused. Instead it should go to a “read only” mode where you are unable to add messages but can access material which is already there.

I realise that the online system encourages this, but I am not at all keen on making a new claim for UC just as an expedient to request MR of the decision to refuse the previous claim. Doing so creates a number of issues including the journal for the first claim becoming completely inaccessible so the paper trail is lost and it creates technical hurdles in “re-opening” the award from the original date of claim which can result in lost entitlement if you are not careful. I think it is much better to request MR either on the phone or by post and I only advise people to reclaim if there is some reason to think the new claim may be successful.