UC and SDP back payment

sflet29

hello,
I’m hoping somebody will be able to give me some advice regarding universal credit. I moved to UC from ESA in November 2018, I was on the enhanced rate for mobility and daily living PIP. I have queried many times with DWP why I wasn’t receiving SDP, in January this year following the court ruling I wrote to them again.

I have been told that I am not entitled to any back pay for SDP as I had a period of 3 months where my claim to UC was cancelled as my mental health was so poor I didn’t attend work search meetings. It has since been decided that I should never have been expected to attend anyway. 

I also lost my claim to PIP in July 2019, however at tribunal this was awarded and backdated. They have said that they are basing my entitlement on a date of 01/09/2019 (I have no idea why this date). I wasn’t in receipt of PIP at that time but my backdated tribunal claim means I was entitled.

I have a tribunal in 2 weeks regarding this and was just looking for any success stories or advice. It’s almost £8000 that I have not been paid, I’ve struggled financially since moving to UC so it’s very upsetting to think I should never have been in this position. 

poppy123456

When you were claiming ESA were you living alone or treated as living alone? 

If so was anyone claiming either carers allowance or carers element of UC for looking after you? 

If there was entitlement to SDP when you were claiming ESA, did you still live alone when you claimed UC? 

Does your UC also include the LCWRA element for yourself? 

sflet29

poppy123456 said:

When you were claiming ESA were you living alone or treated as living alone? 

If so was anyone claiming either carers allowance or carers element of UC for looking after you? 

If there was entitlement to SDP when you were claiming ESA, did you still live alone when you claimed UC? 

Does your UC also include the LCWRA element for yourself? 

I lived alone when on ESA and have always done so whilst on UC. Nobody has ever claimed carers allowance for looking after me. 

I had been on UC for almost 3 years before they arranged an assessment for LCWRA. They said this was because I had a child under 4, I have been receiving lcwra since November 2022.

Adrian_Scope

Hello @sflet29 and a warm welcome to the community. 
When you moved over to UC, do you recall which 'group' you were in under ESA? Either the Support Group or WRAG? 
If you don't mind me asking, what prompted the move over to UC? I'm wondering if you should also have been awarded LCWRA from the start of your claim.

Adrian_Scope

sflet29 said:

I also lost my claim to PIP in July 2019, however at tribunal this was awarded and backdated. They have said that they are basing my entitlement on a date of 01/09/2019 (I have no idea why this date). 

Is this date around the time your UC claim closed?

sflet29

Adrian_Scope said:

Hello @sflet29 and a warm welcome to the community. 
When you moved over to UC, do you recall which 'group' you were in under ESA? Either the Support Group or WRAG? 
If you don't mind me asking, what prompted the move over to UC? I'm wondering if you should also have been awarded LCWRA from the start of your claim.

Hi,
I was in the support group of ESA. I had my claim closed as I reported that I was going to be moving in with a partner however only 10 days after this the relationship broke down. 

So I contacted ESA to ask that I restart my claim but was informed I could only apply for UC. I had been informed by citizens advice that within 4 weeks I could go back to ESA but DWP said this was not the case. 

UC said that I did not trigger for an assessment due to my child’s age so I wouldn’t have been expected to find work anyway. My tribunal date is 12/06 and I’m expected to attend, I’m just unsure if there is any evidence I can provide at tribunal. 

L_Volunteer

This sounds really frustrating @sflet29 - especially the conflicting information  Are you able to either:

• Ask Citizen's Advice to highlight the legislation/guidance which says after 4 weeks you could back to ESA and challenge this with the DWP 

• Or ask DWP why this is not the case and if you can appeal their decision / speak to someone else from the DWP

What is the tribunal for? Obviously, the evidence you need to provide is different depending on the purpose of the tribunal. I want to hear you as clearly as I can 

poppy123456

If your ESA claim ended before you claimed UC then it’s correct that your ESA support Group status wouldn’t have applied to UC from the start of your claim.

It is my understanding also that the same would apply to the SDP transitional protection. 

Once you claim UC you can’t ever go back into the old legacy benefits such as Income Related ESA. 

However, it was wrong of them to advise you that you didn’t need to have any work capability assessment because you had a child under a certain age. This would not have prevented a work capability assessment. 

I see your Tribunal is very soon, do let us know how you get on if possible. 

sflet29

poppy123456 said:

If your ESA claim ended before you claimed UC then it’s correct that your ESA support Group status wouldn’t have applied to UC from the start of your claim.

It is my understanding also that the same would apply to the SDP transitional protection. 

Once you claim UC you can’t ever go back into the old legacy benefits such as Income Related ESA. 

However, it was wrong of them to advise you that you didn’t need to have any work capability assessment because you had a child under a certain age. This would not have prevented a work capability assessment. 

I see your Tribunal is very soon, do let us know how you get on if possible. 

Hi Poppy,

I had my tribunal this morning, it was telephone so quite difficult to ask many questions. 

When the DWP representative was asked to speak she went straight in with ‘we realise there has been an error and you should’ve been in receipt of SDP transitional payment from X date’. So it was much less stressful than anticipated.

I did want to ask whether they would be backdating to the start of my claim or just this date, 10 months later. But couldn’t hear well enough, I’ll find out when my letter arrives. 

L_Volunteer

Has your letter arrived yet @sflet29? Please feel free to update us about how things are for you at the moment and if there's anything else we can do to help