Extra bedroom - decision made in May 2021 & overpayment due to Carers Allowance

Hi :)

I’ve just started assiting a client who has 2 issues with their joint claim UC.

The first is an overpayment of Carers Allowance.  Both husband and wife receive CA for looking after each other and both claimed UC as carers.  The journal entries confirm “caring for someone completed by…” when they made their UC claim in late November 2020.  There is a generated journal entry called “income other than earnings” which states that they are both receiving CA.  However the client received on 01/03/22 an overpayment letter stating that the wife did not inform UC that she was receiving CA.  I have checked the payment history and all but one AP shows two lots of CA deductions so I’m assuming the payments have been changed following the overpayment notification.

The client before seeking advice has requested a MR of the overpayment decision so my question is, should I request a Supercession? 

The second issue is with underoccupation and the bedrrom tax.  Having gone through their journal entries for the above possible supercession request, I noticed that a letter was issued in May 2021 refusing an extra bedroom (husband and wife unable to share a bedroom due to disability).  The letter does not give any review or appeal rights so can we challenge this now?  The client was never asked to submit any medical evidence and didn’t think to do so.  She has since asked UC to consider a third bedroom again (Feb 22).

Thank you in advance.

I am not quite sure I have understood the first question. If it is the case that both members of the couple are getting CA then - if their UC has been correctly calculated - it ought to include two carers element and have deductions equivalent to two lots of carers allowance. If the deductions for CA were not originally made for whatever reason, then it is correct that they will have been overpaid. Whether they told the DWP about the CA at an earlier stage is not strictly relevant as the overpayment would still be recoverable from them even if it were the result of DWP error.

Perhaps you are suggesting that one or both of the corresponding carers elements have not been included in the calculation? If this is the case it would not surprise me in the least. It would be appropriate to ask for this to be looked at. In practical terms, this is done by reporting a “change of circumstances” that the claimant is a carer and asking for this to be backdated for as long as that has been true. This way the case manager should send the case over to a decision maker to consider backdating as appropriate. The outcome of that can be challenged as necessary.

In relation to the second question, if there was a decision made in May 2021 that they did not qualify for an additional bedroom, then yes they can still challenge this. A decision is subject to “any grounds” revision which can be requested within a month - however this deadline can be extended up to a total of thirteen months. That thirteen month deadline has not yet passed so they are still within time. Note that this would need to be by reference to the facts at the time. The effect of the decision in R(CJ) & SG v SSWP [2017] UKUT 324 (AAC), [2018] AACR 5 is that even if the DWP refuse to deal with your request because it’s late, you can still appeal to the Tribunal. You should not be dissuaded even slightly from pursuing an otherwise valid challenge just because the 1 month ‘deadline’ has been missed.

The first issue was whether there was anything other than trying to get the overpayment waived - they were getting 2 carers elements so it was more to do with the recovery.
Thanks Elliot