Travelling abroad while on UC LCWRA

smallsachet

Hello everyone,

I have been awarded UC (LCWRA) and PIP due to suffering from complex PTSD as well as depression and anxiety - for which I am currently going through therapy. I have a few questions regarding travelling abroad for a 14 day holiday to see family. I am worried about doing the right thing regarding travelling abroad. Due to my health problems I can spiral with worry over issues such as this one. The conflicting and vague information given out online (even on sources such as gov uk), has left me confused.

Firstly I understand the time limitations on the overseas travel, those are quite clear. But I've seen various sources claim that you do or, don't need to inform via your journal if you're travelling abroad on LCWRA. Is it safer to just inform them and not run the risk of staying quiet (as some people have suggested)? I know that they recently added the change of circumstances for travel on the UC website but is that for all UC claimaints (including LCWRA)?

Secondly I have worries over going abroad at all, I want to see my family and perhaps the change of scene will help my condition. However, could reporting one's travel trigger a review? Would they understand the specific issues of my c-PTSD, that its easier to travel somewhere far away than it is to go to a traumatic place or see a certain person who caused the trauma? Do they understand that the health issues can come in waves and some periods of time are better than others?

You can see how much my head is spiralling on this issue. I'm aware similar questions have been asked before but things may have changed since then. Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

poppy123456

This is another one of those cases were some will advise that you need to report going abroad because Gov.uk advises you to do so and it also says you're committing benefit fraud by not reporting that you're going.

You are not committing benefit fraud by not telling them you're going. When claiming UC you can go abroad for up to 1 month without it affecting your claim. As you have LCWRA then you have no work commitments anyway. For this reason you do not need to report you're going away.

I would say it's very unlikely that going away will start a review. You are going for 2 weeks, there's 52 weeks in a year. Just because you're going away this doesn't mean your health conditions have magically improved during that time. We are allowed to have a life, even when claiming benefits and this means going away is allowed.

My daughter claims UC with LCWRA element too and I'm her appointee. We went away back in September for 11 nights and I didn't inform UC she was going. There was no need to, her ASD and learning disability is still there.

I hope you have a wonderful time with your family.

smallsachet

Thank you so much for your reply, it really is reassuring to hear about your experiences, especially with the lack of clarity on the topic from the official sources. I'm still weighing things up in my mind about whether it is worth the stress and if I can manage it but your input certainly has helped me, I appreciate it.

poppy123456

You're welcome, glad my advice helped.