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30 delay delay in claiming UC
Hi
I have a married couple where both are of Pakistani origin but Mr has Spanish nationality.
He has been awarded settled status and Mrs pre-settled as she has not been in the UK for the 5 years.
He stopped working in May/June 2021 (I am waiting for the adult daughter to tell me the exact date from his P45) and claimed UC in June 2021
UC are only paying the single person std allowance. I argued that Mrs gets her rights through her husband as assumed that he was a ‘retained worker’
DWP has come back to me to say that as there was more than a 30 day gap between Mr ending employment and claiming UC. he is only eligible to claim UC using his SS and not the retained worker route, meaning Mrs is not eligible.
I cannot find any regs which stipulate this strict 30 day rule. I know that UC needs to be claimed as soon as possible but sometimes it is better to wait until the day after any final wage is paid so that the wage is not counted in the first AP (not sure this was the case with them as it was more a language barrier)
The other gem which I know for sure is wrong is that there are 3 adult non-deps in the property and UC are only using the one bed LHA. I have argued it (should be 4 bed LHA minus 3 x non-dep deduction) but they came back saying that the non-deps need to contribute towards rent and that is why the one bed is used!!! Having a housing background for almost 20 years, mistakes like this really worry me as UC are putting tenants at risk of homelessness!
There’s some good stuff on this thread:
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/10000/
It may also be worth enquiring whether the husband had acquired a permanent right to reside by 31st December 2020 - i.e. he had lived in the UK with a qualifying right to reside for a continuous period of five years . If so, I think the wife has a right to reside as his family member, irrespective of whether he now has worker status.
There’s some good stuff on this thread:
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/10000/It may also be worth enquiring whether the husband had acquired a permanent right to reside by 31st December 2020 - i.e. he had lived in the UK with a qualifying right to reside for a continuous period of five years . If so, I think the wife has a right to reside as his family member, irrespective of whether he now has worker status.
Fab, thanks James, I will definitely explore the PRTR too as he may well meet that.
The genesis of the “30 day” thing is that there is a piece of DWP guidance somewhere which says that the DM has the ability to ignore a period of 30 days in any 12 month period during which the person concerned was not obviously exercising any particular treaty right where their residence was otherwise compliant. It is not a rule which has any explicit legal foundation but it can be thought of as a sort of de minimis rule.
However this isn’t relevant to your client’s situation because what you need to look at is whether the claim was made without “undue delay” - to which see the caselaw cited in the other thread. There isn’t any particular time period as to what would be undue delay, its going to depend on all the facts.
The other gem which I know for sure is wrong is that there are 3 adult non-deps in the property and UC are only using the one bed LHA. I have argued it (should be 4 bed LHA minus 3 x non-dep deduction) but they came back saying that the non-deps need to contribute towards rent and that is why the one bed is used!!! Having a housing background for almost 20 years, mistakes like this really worry me as UC are putting tenants at risk of homelessness!
I have also seen them where they limit the claimant to the LHA rate (or apply the bedroom tax) on the basis that there is just one applicant so they only need one bedroom and then go on to apply HCCs anyway. Thankfully not for some time.