Rita gets State Pension and high rate of both PIP components
Roger gets Carer’s Allowance
Universal Credit counts the pension and Carer’s Allowance as income, amounting to £1,358.72 per month
Universal Credit thinks that each month they need £1,271.94 (Standard Allowance, Carer Element and Housing Costs Element)
So, they are £86.98 too rich for UC
Because Rita is over pension age and gets the high rate of PIP Daily living Component, she automatically qualifies as having Limited Capability for Work Related Activity and so will qualify for an extra LCWRA Element in the needs-level, after a three-month relevant period.
This will bring it to £1,695.21; and they will be entitled to UC of £336.49 per month.
But here’s the problem:
They can’t get the extra element until they have been getting UC for three months, but they won’t qualify for UC until they get the extra element.
It’s chicken and egg, innit?!
There’s a rule to deal with it:
It’s called Regulation 28(7) of the UC regs 2013
And what it says is: where you are not entitled to UC because your income is too high, but you will be entitled to UC once your three-month relevant-period has passed, they must treat you as having the level of income that would give you a one-penny-per-month award of Universal Credit.
And then, because you have an award of UC you can clock up the waiting time.
Here’s what I told Rita and Roger’s Tenancy Support Worker:
She should get a sicknote (backdated to the date of the original UC claim if possible – see below) and then they should make a new claim for UC.
They should submit the sicknote online on the same day as the claim.
If for some reason they can’t get the sick-note in on the same day as the claim they should clearly say on their journal that she is unwell.
They should also put a note in the journal that says:
We know that under the normal rules, we are not entitled to UC at the moment because our income is too high.
We will be entitled once I have had my Work Capability Assessment and our award includes the LCWRA element.
Until then we are entitled to a minimum award under Regulation 28(7) of the UC regs 2013
I don’t think anyone will take any notice of this, but it puts the point on record.
Doing this will get things going from now onwards, but I would also be looking to get all of this backwards, by asking for a mandatory reconsideration of the decision not to award UC from the earlier claim(s).
In relation to that I would say:
Please do a mandatory reconsideration of your decision of ddmmyy that we are not entitled to UC.
At the time of that claim I told you that I am unwell but we were not told to provide a sicknote, so no work capability assessment was initiated.
If I had been told to provide a sicknote I would have done so, this would have then triggered a WCA, which would then have seen that I should be treated as having LCWRA under paragraph 5 of Schedule 9 of the UC regulations.
This, in turn, would have triggered the minimum award of UC under Regulation 28(7), thereby starting my relevant period