Disabled worker paid weekly and WCA

Got a case where the claimant is paid weekly, earning exactly 16x the NMW per week.  Not on PIP but looking into that.  In most months, this means he has monthly earnings below the threshold that would prevent a WCA from being carried out, but now and again he goes over that threshold because it’s a 5-week month.

How is that ging to work with Reg 41(2)?  Will DWP look at his earnings immediately before the month in which he asks for a WCA (which he has control over) and then again when his WCA comes up - which he cannot control?  Will they monitor his earnings throughout the period in which he is awaiting a WCA and abort the process as soon as he has a 5-week month?

Getting PIP would solve this, but I want to cover all the bases.

Thanks

I don’t think I’ve seen a case where, once started, the WCA has stopped because earnings have increased above the threshold. This has included cases where they’ve moved both from low-paid and no work into more work - and where earnings haven’t actually reduced below the threshold again.

I would have thought they’d design an automated check for it, seems fairly straightforward, but appears they don’t monitor it. Maybe they realised it would prompt another legal challenge on averaging of earnings etc.

‘Earned income’ (defined in reg 52) is taken into account in the AP it is actually received, by reg 54.
But reg 41 refers to ‘monthly earnings’, which are defined in reg 90(6) as a calculated amount.

The explanatory note, from the UC Misc Amendments Regulations 2015, which changed this from a weekly to a monthly calculation, states:

‘The earnings to be measured against such thresholds are a person’s average monthly earnings, rather than average weekly earnings.’

... so the earnings in this case equal the threshold and the SoS can’t carry out a WCA (unless PIP)?

Thanks very much for the replies, and I see now that “monthly earnings” is defined in Reg 2 by reference to Reg 90(6), so that is the method to be used for the purpose of Reg 41 as well: a long term average rather than each month in isolation.  That is a nuisance isn’t it.