LCWRA will be 6 months with nothing extra

James777

Hi
In November I provided all the evidence and fit notes for a few months.

It took a while and was assessed to be in the LCWRA in early March.

I have been told that I will not get anything extra until 3 months from March is up, due to missing one fit note in February that I thought was not necessary. Will be June.

How are people supposed to know this?  Is this usual? I read loads of documents and I have a computer degree, but I missed that. It all seems rather deliberately full of hurdles.

I was also refused PIP after mandatory reconsideration that took 7 months. I just don't have the will to pursue to appeal, so will just have to suffer.

Take care
M 

poppy123456

If you reported your health condition as a change of circumstances on your journal then this will prompt you to send a fit note and it will be on your "to do list." When one fit note is about to expire you will have a message on your journal a couple of times to remind you that you need to get another fit note.

Part of the requirement when reporting a health condition are that you're supposed to sent fit notes for the whole time, without any gaps until a decision is made on your work capability assessment. Gaps in your fit notes can affect when the LCWRA element is paid from.

As there was a gap in your fit notes then it sounds like they've started your waiting period from the assessment period in which the decision was made, this means that it will be either June or July (depending on your assessment period dates and when the decision was made) when you receive the extra month. This is because there's a full 3 month assessment period waiting time and the extra money is paid from the 4th month because UC is paid 1 month in arrears.

You can ask them if they will accept a backdated fit note for the gap. It will be down to a decision maker to make the final decision. If they will accept the backdated fit note then when it's paid from will depend on what date you sent your first fit note and what date you usually receive your money each month.

For your PIP, it's not unusual for the MR decision not to change because only 23% of them do. For the best chance of a decision in your favour you can proceed to Tribunal, providing the decision on your MR was less than 13 months ago.

Cher_Alumni

Hi @James777 and welcome to the online community from me, how are things going today?

I can see Poppy has offered you an in-depth explanation of the LCWRA process and the likelihood of a decision being overturned at the MR stage. I agree, it's a difficult system to navigate and there are many barriers that could make people inclined not to pursue what they are eligible for unfortunately.

If you think additional support from a welfare representative would be useful, you can visit the Advice Local website to find someone close to you. Just enter your postcode, select 'Welfare benefits' from the drop down list and scroll to the organisations at the bottom of the next screen.

Just to note - I've moved your thread to our Universal credit (UC) category to make it more readily visible to others.

Wishing you all the best.