Help understanding

silvestersilv

Hi I need help understanding our universal credit backdate award. We applied for DLA for my son back in June 2021 and through no fault of ours (the tribunal courts kept cancelling our appeal) we only got it awarded this year a couple of months ago.

We did get a backdated payment but only from 2022. I asked about it being from 2021 as that’s when claim started and they said it would have to be looked at as it would only be awarded under special circumstances because how long ago it was. So it was looked into and as it was not our fault we were awarded it. This is a copy/paste of what it said in letter…

‘You reported a change that happened on 9 July 2021. This declaration was made outside the assessment period in which the change happened.

The decision maker has reviewed the reasons for the delay in notifying us of the change. On this occasion it has been decided that special circumstances apply and your Universal Credit will be adjusted from the date of change.

Changes to your Universal Credit entitlement will be shown in your monthly statement’

so my question is this…. Don’t they owe us money from June 2021 until the date we have already been paid for? Because it just seems like we should be owed money or why bother looking and awarding the special circumstances? But they are saying that we aren’t owed anything? I have asked a couple of times and they just say that we’ve already had a back payment for all that is owed but I said each time that it was only backdated from 2022 not 2021. I keep being told that no we aren’t owed any money and I just don’t understand! 

Could someone please help me understand wether we are owed money still or not and if not could it be explained to me why?

thanks in advance!

silvestersilv

I’m sorry I’ve just seen I put this in wrong place I don’t know how I must’ve knocked something before I started writing!

poppy123456

You've misunderstood the letter you received. A decision maker has decided that "special circumstances apply" and that you will be owed money from when the changes took place 9th July 2021. As UC us based on your circumstances on the last day of each assessment period then you will be owed money from the start of that assessment period.

Without knowing the dates your assessment periods cover or what date you usually receive your money each month then it's not possible to tell you when it's paid from exactly.

You just need to wait for them to recalculate your past statements. This will tell them how much money you've received since the start of the DLA award and how much money you should have received. You will then be owed the difference between the two. Once this is done you'll receive a letter on your journal telling you how much they owe and it will be paid into your bank. Very often it can take quite a few weeks to do this.

Please be aware that the new statements will replace your existing ones so you may want to take copies of the ones you have now.

Jimm_Scope

Hey @silvestersilv, I moved this over to the Universal Credit category for you

Welcome to the community! Hopefully Poppy has answered your question, if not please do let us know what you're still unsure about.