Reporting a change of circumstances

Hi All.

Just looking for some views on this really, with a steer towards any legislation I might be missing.

As we all know claimants must report a change of circumstances to DWP so that it is possible for their award to be paid correctly.  And it is in the interests of everyone that notification is made in the preferred way as chosen by the DWP.

But….. Is there a requirement that notification MUST be made in the way chosen by DWP?  What if it is made in another way but confirmed as made?

I’m dealing with a case at the moment where a claimant has made a number of attempts to notify that an adult child no longer lives in their property.  There are a number of notes throughout the journal about this and notes of attempts to report via the ‘change of circumstances’ option which the DWP were unable to verify (I don’t know what that means when proving a negative).  None of these attempts to report the change have led to the change being acted upon.

In olden times I would just be saying that notification has been made (more than once) and should be acted on.  Am I missing something?

Mairi

Well it sounds like in this case it HAS been made in the preferred way - i.e. by using the report CiC function to do exactly that?

If this is an OP issue, then does it matter? It’ll be recoverable anyway.

If it is an UP issue, then you’re either looking at an appeal (or JR if they still haven’t acted) and they clearly have evidence of having reported the CiC for purposes of backdating etc.

OR, they’ve failed to respond to requests for further info/evidence from DWP, in which case this becomes a different issue.

Thanks va1der.

Not an overpayment issue.  As we’re in Scotland we need under occupancy to be the reason for the full housing costs not being paid so that they can be paid a discretionary housing payment for this rather than there being an amount of UC not paid which the claimant can’t afford to pay to the rent account.

Mairi

If you have contact details for the local partnership manager that’d probably be the easiest/fastest solution. Failing that try the local MP. JR if it comes to it, but i’ve never had to in these cases.

Also worthwhile double checking that they aren’t in fact entitled to the extra bedroom. Happens that DWP makes some decisions on these matters, without making it clear in the journal (I had one recently where there was a person DWP considered to fall under the overnight carer provisions, but never specified that anywhere obvious).

Good news is any DHP is likely to be awarded backdated in these cases.

The UC system can’t really deal with changes otherwise than under the specific ‘change in circumstances’ function. From what I understand the case manager can only interact with the system by either approving or rejecting specific elements requested. So, messages on the journal aren’t going to change anything substantive in the award.

However, really this is besides the point. If you report the change using the tool on the journal, you can request backdating of the change. The provisions of the Decisions and Appeals Regulations still apply so that generally there is going to be an entitlement to have the change put into effect from the start of the AP in which the change ‘was notified’.

The reports to the journal are still going to constitute such a ‘notification’ even if they aren’t sufficient for the UC computer system to change anything.

Thanks both.

That was my thinking - that if they know they know.  Just started to feel like there must be something I’m missing because it’s still not been sorted despite several attempts to do so by the claimant, including apparently providing a letter from the adult child who no longer lives at the property confirming this.

Sometimes I long for the days when you could go to an office and argue the toss!!  Or at least speak to a decision maker!

Mairi

UC etc (Claims & Payments) Regs, reg 38

‘(5) A notification of any change of circumstances under paragraph (4) must be given—

(a)in writing or by telephone (unless the Secretary of State determines in any case that notice must be given in a particular way or to accept notice given otherwise than in writing or by telephone); or
(b)in writing if in any class of case the Secretary of State requires written notice (unless the Secretary of State determines in any case to accept notice given otherwise than in writing),
and must be sent or delivered to, or received at, the appropriate office.’

In your case though, the client has tried to notify using what I assume is the ‘particular way’ the SSWP wants a change of circs to be given, ie using the ‘report a change of circs’ tab. So even if the DWP won’t (can’t?) confirm that’s been done, they’ve presumably got a record of when they submitted in that way?

I had something similar just recently. Cl had misnamed their LL as the old company name rather than the new one. The Build couldn’t recognise the landlord so the HCE never went into payment. Client was given some very ambiguous instructions how to remedy the situation and an increasingly heated exchange on the journal over several months ensued.

The landlord being the litigioous type sought possession and it came to me via the court duty scheme.

I requested recon of every month’s statement where the HCE wasn’t properly calculated and it was fixed in a matter of a few days…