MR on closed UC claim?

anisty

My son's UC claim was closed due to too much capital. In fact, the capital never exceeded 16k once COL taken into account.

As his capital is high though, and his spends are very low, he does not need UC and I really do not want to start a new claim for him until hiscapital is spent.

I put in an MR though for 2 reasons.

1. I was hoping they might re-open his claim, his journal, his to dos which will make the process of sending more bank statements much easier. (There has been some under-reporting of capital due to him having a little more than the declared 13k)
2. I wanted them to factor in COL when working out his overpayment.

Worryingly, i saw an old comment on Rightsnet saying you cannot do an MR on a closed UC claim. The only way is to open a new claim.

I submitted one MR in writing to the Freepost address. But no text acknowledgement. I also did an MR by phone and the agent took all the details.

I had a UCD68 letter asking me why i was late in reporting capital. The response deadline for that was 5th Feb. I replied in writing as the journal is closed. But, again, i don't know if my reply was received.

I have not had any phone calls or letters asking me for more statements. So far, they only have 4 months' statements.

Is it true that, if you do an MR on a closed claim, no one will look at it?

The reason given by Rightsnet is that closed claims have no claim manager.

Although, in our case, i assume a case manager will need to do the UCD 68 civic penalty.

What should my next steps be? Do i wait it out, open a new claim or give them a call on Monday to see what's going on?

poppy123456

You can't request the MR on a closed claim through the journal because it's closed. You can request it by letter or phone, which you did. I wouldn't bank on then sending notification that they received the letter with that request because they don't often do that with UC.

I'd advise you to ring them tomorrow morning to ask. MR decisions can take up to 15 weeks.

anisty

Ah that's great thanks Poppy. I'm prepared for a long wait but it would be gutting if they didn't even look at the MR!

anisty

DWP just called to say they have received my mail and it's been uploaded to the system and will now go to the DM for consideration.

Just seemed to be a courtesy call. Friendly and non threatening!

Fortunately i had DWPs number (08000 232 6350) saved into my phone so i knew who it was before i picked up.

Holly_Scope

That's good news @anisty - nice you received an update from them. Wishing you all the best with the consideration 🙂

anisty

Thanks @Holly_Scope 🙂 It's an incredibly stressful process for me and i'm not even the claimant!

Whichever way the MR goes will be ok I think. Just to get the situation resolved and closed off will be a weight off my shoulders!

It was good of them to call for sure.