Esa stopped needed to apply for universal credit

newmember

I was receiving esa income related with s disability premium and pip. The esa stopped due to change of address. I was advised to claim uc but was asking for esa to be reopened. After waiting for few weeks back and forth, passed in circles I lost patience with esa being re instated, and I made claim for uc BUT after 30 days I.e 40 days.

They awarded me standard uc initially, and I did a lwrca assessment but only paid from 3 months after the initial uc claim. 

Long story short I lost approx 4 months of payments of esa with severe disability premium. They did not link my esa claim with the uc claim because it was outside of 30 days.

The delay in applying for Universal credit was caused by confusion and different advice I.e being told not to apply for.uc until esa decision was made and then being told something different, then being told I had no choice, and eventually I got fed up and needed money desperately so I applied for uc but after 40days of my esa claim being closed.

I have asked for either esa to be awarded for the gap period between esa stopping and uc claim being made or back dating my uc to the day esa closed, in order to link the claims. However they have refused.

I asked for reconsideration, stated I was in criss and that's what caused delay but no they don't want to back date my uc claim. I have therefore started an appeal to court as they haven't changed their mind on mandatory reconsideration. 

Is there anything I can add / any ideas of evidence or something I can say to the online appeal to support or make my case stronger?  Their main point on why they refuse to back date or link the claims is because I was told to apply for uc but I was also told to wait and see the outcome of asking to reopen my esa. This along with my poor mental health at the time and not knowing what to do caused the delay. 

I am upset about this because it is a lot of money and I think it is very unfair.

poppy123456

I'm not clear why your ESA stopped because you changed your address. This isn't a change of circumstances that would or should have just stopped your ESA. It should have been a simple change of address.

You will have only needed to claim UC if you needed to claim for help with any rent, unless you were claiming housing benefit and moved within the same local Authority.

If you moved to a different local Authority then you would have needed to claim UC for help with the rent. Unless you were living in either supported or temporary housing.

Were you moving in with a partner or continuing to live alone? Were you previously claiming housing benefit? Did you move to a different local Authority or the same one?

newmember

I'm sorry - I was not comfortable to say but i was in remand for 2 weeks

poppy123456

newmember said:

I'm sorry - I was not comfortable to say but i was in remand for 2 weeks

That will be why your ESA stopped because Income Related ESA can't be paid while on remand. Once it ends you can no longer reclaim because it doesn't exist anymore. https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Your-Situation/A-prisoner/Prisoners-on-remand/Benefit-entitlement-on-remand

This means it was correct that you needed to claim UC. Had you claimed this as soon as you were released then you would have been entitled to SDP transitional protection from the start of your claim.

However because your ESA claim had already ended then you wouldn't have been entitled to LCWRA from the start of your claim for UC. Once you were awarded the LCWRA element from the 4th month then the SDP TP would have eroded so you wouldn't have been any better off anyway.

newmember

Thank you for your reply and explaining so clearly.

I jist a bit annoyed becuase lost about 4-5 months of esa minus standard universal credit. I have made an appeal to see if it my claim for universal credit can be backdated due to my poor health or disability and conflicting advice from dwp. They were initially considering reopening the esa (atleast seemd as if they were) and I was waiting on that decision but after waiting for too long (eventually 40 days) I gave up and that's why I applied for uc. 

Do you think there may be a chance that it can be backdated to when I first called dwp asking for the esa to be reopened ? Which was the day after I was released. Unfortunately I thought I would lose my higher amount esa and that's why I delayed applying for uc because I thought they might reopen the esa. 

poppy123456

As your ESA had ended and there was a gap of you claiming UC then there would have been no entitlement to the LCWRA from the start of your claim. Even if you had claimed UC within 1 month of the ESA ending.

As you had to go through the WCA process again then the waiting period will apply before the LCWRA element would be included. I can't see how they can backdate that because the waiting period is the law. (unless you're claiming because of end of life)

Your ESA couldn't have been reopened because your claim ended and it wouldn't have been possible to make a rapid reclaim for Income Related ESA. Who advised you that they maybe able to reopen it?

Thinking about the SDP Transitional protection, i'm not even convinced there would have been any entitlement to this because your ESA claim had actually ended, which would have also ended your entitlement to SDP. Someone else may know for sure, if they see this.

calcotti

Changing address would not end an income based ESA award.
Changing address would end Housing Benefit if the new address was in a new local authority.

If the ESA was stopped solely because of a change of address that would be an error.

UC cannot include the SDP transitional protection if the gap between ESA and UC exceeded a month.

However if the ESA was reinstated until the date you claimed UC you would then have continuity which would mean that LCWRA should be awarded from the start of the UC and the SDPTE should be included.

Have you requested to ESA for a Mandatory Reconsideration of the decision to stop the ESA?

To be clear - were there any other changes besides changing address?

poppy123456

calcotti said:

Changing address would not end an income based ESA award.
Changing address would end Housing Benefit if the new address was in a new local authority.

If the ESA was stopped because a change of address that would be an error.

You missed this vital comment..

newmember said:

I'm sorry - I was not comfortable to say but i was in remand for 2 weeks

That would mean ESA Income Related would have ended. It wasn't the change of address that ended the claim.

calcotti

poppy123456 said:

You missed this vital comment..

newmember said:

I'm sorry - I was not comfortable to say but i was in remand for 2 weeks

That would mean ESA Income Related would have ended.

My fault, I opened this thread earlier this evening, then got diverted and then forgot to reload the page before repkying so hadn’t read the later replies!

Sorry for causing any confusion. Your replies have detailed the situation very clearly.

Being on remand makes difference. Can’t get the correct answer without complete information.

poppy123456 said:

Thinking about the SDP Transitional protection, i'm not even convinced there would have been any entitlement to this because your ESA claim had actually ended, which would have also ended your entitlement to SDP. Someone else may know for sure, if they see this. 

SDPTE can be included if the SDP was in payment within one month before the start of the UC claim and provided the conditions to qualify for SDP are still met. (I’ve always thought it unreasonable there is no similar 30 day rule for LCWRA - but that’s off topic)

The best the OP could possibly get is for the tribunal to backdate the UC by one month (the maximum amount permitted by the law). Even then I think the SDPTE will not be relevant because the qualifying conditions for SDP were not continuously met (due to being in remand).

poppy123456

Thanks calcotti. That's happened to me so many times. Being given the correct information really does help because the advice we give is based on the information given.

calcotti

Newmember, can you confirm whether your ESA was entirely income based ESA or whether you received a mixed award of contribution based ESA topped up by income based ESA.