MY UNIVERSAL CREDIT ACCOUNT IS BLOCKED

fijihems

My wife and I applied for universal credit in March and were awarded the benefit as a couple in April 2024. Later my wife requested that I travel out of the country to represent her for the burial of her close family relative as she had a stroke and was not strong enough for the journey. So in May I inform the universal credit of my intention to travel by May for a burial of a relative.

However, I became ill in May and could not travel. I sent my sick note to the universal credit for one month. Later in June I sent in another sick note for three months as my illness was not getting better. In July 2024 I was awarded LCWRA.

Surprisingly I was invited to jobcentre near me. But on reaching there I found that my name was not on the list of people invited. I enquired from a staff what could be the problem and she said that my account must have been stopped.

On getting back home, I tried to log into my UC account and found that I no longer had access to my account. My wife contacted the office several times and they said that I am an ineligible partner and my account has been closed since then.

When I contacted the office, they told me that they have sent my case to the decision making, and there is no time limit to the time I can get a response. Meanwhile, I am due to start receiving my LCWRA allowance by October 2024. But I don't know if I would be paid or not. They also reduced my wife's universal credit allowance to that of a single person. I cannot understand what is going on.

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

Only UC will be able to tell you the exact reason that you're now classed as an ineligible partner but I appreciate you've been trying them already without any luck.

Can I ask if you have savings over £16k? Or are above state pension age?

Both of those things prevent eligibility for UC. I think the travel plans are a red herring and not necessarily connected. Though it is possible that someone at UC has really messed up and put a long term move abroad on your account. Sadly I don't know how we could prove this if you can't access your account now.

You won't get paid LCWRA or any other UC while your account is closed.

Does your wife have LCWRA? As far as I'm aware, only one LCWRA element can be paid for a joint claim, so you can't both claim it as a couple.

fijihems

Hi, I do appreciate your time and effort to explain in great detail your views regarding my case. The fact is that we were paid universal credit allowance as a couple for two months.

I don't know if my UC account was blocked because I notified about my intention to travel abroad. My mistake could be that I did not inform them that I had cancelled my intention to travel.

I had assumed that for the fact that I submitted a sick note in May covering one month and another one in June, which covers three months, should have been enough to show that I was in the country all along. I also had an assessment for work capability in June and was granted LCWRA in July. All these information are well known to them as I believe they have the records.

fijihems

Also my wife is not on LCWRA, she receives PIP.

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/912687#Comment_912687

Thank you for confirming. PIP does not affect UC so at least that's another thing we can rule out from stopping the joint claim.

I think you might be right about the travel plans now. UC is handled by many different departments and they don't all communicate between each other. If one noted that you had travelled, but there was no end date put on that travel, it may appear that you are still out of the country now.

I know that seems daft when you've handed in fit notes and even had a WCA. But that would end the claim if it is what's happened.

Jimm_Scope

While you would think that would show you were in the country for that time @fijihems the DWP doesn't always make the best assumptions. Do you remember exactly what you told them in May about going abroad?

fijihems

I told them that I had an intention to travel on a particular date in either May or June and I would be staying for nearly three months. That I needed to go for the planning and preparation for the burial of a close relative. So someone responded and said that I should inform them close to the time of my travel.

As I could not travel again as proposed because I was ill. I did not bother to inform them that I was not travelling because I was not feeling well. I was surprised to notice on a particular day after returning from the jobcentre that my account has been stopped as I could no longer log in.

My wife called them the following day and complained that I did not travel out of the country. They told her that the note on my account stated that I am not an eligible partner. Despite blocking my account, they were contacting my wife to ask me to send a new sick note when my sick note I sent to them in May expires. Later, I got another sick note in June covering three months, which I also sent to them. My wife has been writing to them and I have been calling them. They said my case has been sent to the decision maker and there is no time limit for them to respond.

Regarding having up £16,000 in our accounts, we sent them all our account details during the assessment period and based on that, they awarded us universal credit as a couple.

fijihems

Regarding the award of the LCWRA, I did not send them any document because it was sent to my phone and the office knows about it because they confirmed that it was in my record or file when I had communication with the office.

poppy123456

Very odd why they've cancelled your claim because you live with your wife. I can only assume the same as the others here and they think you were out of the country so that's why your wife's claim is now a single claim.

Can you please also confirm that you don't have savings/capital of more than £16,000? Because it's not clear by what you said in your other comment. If you do then there would be no entitlement to UC for either yourself or your wife, unless you were migrated from Tax credits.

fijihems

The total amount of money in our bank accounts was not up to £16,000. If it was up to that amount, they won't have granted us to universal credit. And if that's the case, they would have closed down the accounts of both my wife and I because it was a joint application and a joint award as a couple.

fijihems

We were not migrated from tax credit. I don't even know what that means. This is our first time of applying for universal credit because my wife had a stroke and I also have several long time illnesses.