LCWRA

jadlin

hi 

I previous has LCW and in January2024 I reported a health change that stopped me from doing work related activity I had my referral for my assessment on 27/02/2024 and I actually had my assessment on 20/06/2024 I have been notified today that I have LCWRA 

could somebody please advise when I will get my first payment and any back dated money the online journal message today saying I had LCWRA didn’t say when I will get the extra payment or any back dated money 

anyones help would be greatly appreciate thank you in advance

Albus_Scope

Hey there @jadlin and welcome to the community. Congratulations on your LCWRA award, that must be a big relief?

I can see you'd also posted this an hour ago, so I'll just delete the previous discussion so people don't get too confused, I hope that's ok?

I'm not 100% on when you'd receive the first payment, it's usually on the fourth payment cycle, but that may be different as you've already had LCW. Hopefully one of the regulars will be able to give you a definitive answer soon. 😊

jadlin

sorry didn’t meant to cause confusion with a few comments I’m new to here didn’t know where to post lol thank you yes big relief thank you any advice would be so appreciated thanks again

Albus_Scope

Haha, not a worry at all @jadlin it takes a bit of getting used to for sure! Sometimes due to the nature of the community, it can be a bit of a wait before you get the answers to your questions. But we do have a bunch of super knowledgeable people here, so you'll be ok. 😊

poppy123456

You will be entitled to the extra money from the assessment period in which you reported the changes. Providing you sent a fit note to support that and continued to provide them without any gaps until a decision was made on your new WCA.

jadlin

hi poppy thank you for replying I really appreciate it and I wasn’t sending fit notes as I already had LCW for another health problem and another existing health problem got worse in the last 8 months and I was advised to report the change in January as it was worsening my health so my report of change was on 24th Jan i didn’t provide fit notes but medication and hospital referral was my evidence, again any advice would be greatly appreciated i apologies if I haven’t explained it very well

will I have to wait 3 month and when do you think i would get my first payment and any backdated

Thank you again for your time and advice

poppy123456

There's no waiting period because you already had LCW. However, you are supposed to provide fit notes when reporting changes to your health condition. If you reported changes through "report a change of circumstances" and then clicked "health condition" then it should have prompted an action on your to do list to provide a fit note.

You will need to wait for a decision maker to make the decision on when to pay it from.

jadlin

ahhh I see what you mean but nobody ever told me I needed to provide one or I would of

thank you so much hopefully I get a payment this month as it hasn’t been my statement yet

poppy123456

@MissMel I"m not aware that they ask if you're claiming PIP on the UC application form. I know it wasn't on there when my daughter claimed it.

What they do ask you on the application form if you have any health conditions. If you report those health conditions on there then it should create an action on your "to do list" to provide a fit note. If you did report them on there then I'm very surprised that it didn't prompt you to provide that fit note.

PIP doesn't automatically entitled you to either LCW or LCWRA, unless you're of state pension age and above.

When you told your work coach about your health conditions they should have advised you to provide a fit note. If no fit notes are provided then you can't be referred for a work capability assessment.

The person you spoke to from the helpline is incorrect that a backdated fit note would be accepted if you're found to have LCWRA. They usually accept that fit note when you provide it but if found to have LCWRA then the waiting period starts from when you actually provided that fit note and not the date on it.

As you were very poorly advised, if you're found to have LCWRA then you can ask them to consider starting it from the start of your fit note. Tell them that if you were advised correctly then you would have provided that fit note. However, as I advised, usually when you report a health condition, either at the start of your claim or through "reporting a change of circumstances and clicking health conditions then it should prompt an action on your to list to provide a fit note.

When claiming UC you're treated as a job seeker until a decision is made on the WCA. Work coaches have discretion to either turn off or reduce commitments. Some so and others don't. Hopefully, if you've now provided a fit note then your work coach with do either of those.

Yes, definitely put in a complaint about the lack of advice from your work coach.

poppy123456

@MissMel you said this…

And another important thing, if you earn over £793 a month, after expenses (it is calculated over the year) you are no longer regarded as disabled. I am not making this up. You can still get the LCW and LCWRA but you will be subject to having to work with a work coach. How inspiring is that to get people to earn more😲

There's some misunderstanding here. UC has nothing to do with your annual earnings. Entitlement to UC is based on earnings received each assessment period.

You're confusing the rule where you can't be referred for a work capability assessment if your earnings are more than 16xNMW/week, which is around £793/month. This doesn't apply to those that are claiming a disability benefit such as PIP/ADP or DLA. You can still be referred for a WCA regardless of earnings.

Those that have been found to have LCWRA do not have a work coach because they have no work commitments. Those that have LCW will have a work coach and maybe expected to do work related activity, such as attend work focused interviews to prepare to work in the future. (unless they already work)

poppy123456

@MissMel You're welcome and thank you for such kind words. Glad the provide a fit note has finally appeared.

Where did you learn that you would be worse off if found to have LCW? Your understanding is not correct, you can't be worse off. If you don't already have the work allowance you will be entitled to that if found to have LCW or LCWRA. The work allowance means you can receive a certain amount of money each month before the deductions apply. If you claim for help with the rent it will be £404/month, if you don't it will be £673/month. For every £1 over those amounts your UC will reduce by 55p. Therefore you can't be worse off.

There's no extra money for those that have LCW as the rules changed for this in April 2017. There's extra money if found to have LCWRA from the 4th month after you provided your first fit note. However, if your UC includes Transitional Protection with the additional element your TP will decrease by the same amount so you may not be any better off with your maximum UC entitlement. With the addition of the work allowance if you don't already have that then you will still be better off.

Whether you're found to have either LCW or LCWRA they will be no further pressure to look for work and with LCWRA you won't have any commitments.

I also disagree with Citizens Advice, that it's more difficult for self employed having to prove they are not capable of working. Everyone that has health conditions which causes a limited capability to work has to prove this. There are some that are automatically entitled to LCWRA if they are currently going through or recently been through treatment for cancer. As well as those that are state pension age and above if they are claiming Enhanced daily living PIP/ADP or high rate care DLA.

poppy123456

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/892422#Comment_892422

Yup there will be some people in the long term that will be worse off if their UC includes TP. Especially those that are claiming Severe disability Premium with a legacy benefit such as Income Related ESA and this is me. Once TP erodes we will be receiving the same amount of money as everyone else, even though on legacy benefits we are entitled to more due to the SDP.

Not everyone will be worse of though, some people that transfer across are better off. This may include yourself once the WCA decision is made if you don't have the work allowance at the moment because you'll get to keep more of your earnings before deductions.