LCWRA am I due back payment?

karenw90

Hi I am new on here and just looking for some advice from anyone who knows better than me.

I have been on universal credit as unfit for work since November 2020. I previously provided continuous fit notes until I was advised I no longer had to.

Up until recently the only assessments were a couple of health forms and 1 phone assessment. I am aware that I was in LCW group up until now.

After finally having an in person assessment at the beginning on July 2024 I was advised via a letter in my online journal that I was deemed as being in the LCWRA group.

It stated if I was owed any money they would advise within 7 days and that most people are from 3 months after being first declared unfit for work. I got a notification on the 6th of August, but it was only for £339.10 which equated to the difference for rent payments from November 2020 - April 2021.

Does this mean that is all I was due backdated or should I expect a large back payment for LCWRA from the 4th month I have been unfit for work?

Any thoughts or advice on this would be greatly appreciated, also should I contact them about the matter as it has been 22 days since I was first advised of the in person assessment results and being categorised as LCWRA group.

Many Thanks In Advance,

karenw90

poppy123456

As you already had LCW was this a review started by UC?

Or did you report changes to your health condition that prompted them to refer you for another work capability assessment? If you reported changes then I would have expected you to have needed to provide fit notes.

If it was a review started by UC then the extra money is paid from the assessment period in which the decision was made and no money is owed.

If you reported changes to your health condition that prompted them to refer you then the extra money is usually paid from the assessment period in which you reported the changes. However, usually fit notes are needed when reporting changes.

karenw90

Hi Poppy,

Thanks so much for replying quickly. This was a review appointment from universal credit just.

However my health conditions have been the same since being off and unfit for work since November 2020. To be honest my knowledge on everything was and still is limited, I didn't even know about LCW or LCWRA until fairly recently. Otherwise I would of asked about it previously. I just wondered since my conditions are the same would that entitlement me to back payment from then?

If it doesn't, is it something I should be requesting to be looked into as seems I should have been in that group all along. I also wonder if I should contact them about it or what would be the best way to go about it?

Many Thanks,

karenw90

poppy123456

In this case there will be no money owed to you and the extra money is paid from the assessment period in which the decision was made.

When you were found to have LCW back in 2020 if you didn't agree to that decision at that time you could have challenged that decision, which the decision letter would have advised you could do. As you're now out of time to challenge that decision then unfortunately there's nothing you can do. The maximum amount of time you have to challenge a decision is 13 months and you're well outside of that timescale.

I have no idea what that £339.10 was for. It should tell you what it's for in the letter you received when you received that money.

karenw90

Right ok, thanks Poppy I really appreciate your help and advice on all of this. I was in an extremely bad mindset then and genuinely had no knowledge properly of any categories until I was appealing a PIP decision from then and even then I didn't know there was another category so all brand new information to me essentially.

Just seems very unfair and bit disappointing that nobody advised me on anything before now and me having to look into it.

The letter didn't advise specifically what the £339.10 was for but it seems to be for making up rent payments from that time in November 2020 - April 2021 as I had to add to it initially.

I thought this in itself maybe implied that they were back dating my claim with the new categorisation, but maybe just a coincidence then. All very complicated and strange to me.

Thank you so much for all your knowledge and advice, I really appreciate it.

Many Thanks Again,

karenw90