Direct payments and Universal Credits

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Hello all

I really need some advice.

Our child gets Direct Payments for her care needs due to her disability.

Our local authority and local authority Welfare rights informed us that the direct payments are not income or benefits and we are NOT the legal or beneficial owner of the money so its not declareable to UC as UC only require we declare our own money, not money we do not own.

I made the mistake of asking UC to double double check and a person in the DWP who clearly didn't know what Direct payments were said "ohh yes you have to declare the direct payment system money under money savings and investments and you need to provide us evidence to support this claim for us to make a decision as to wether we will consider it your capital or not".

I was very surprised as thought that UC knew what direct payments were and would have had the same response as the LA from the National Authority.

I was scared so I put it down on our money savings and investments and supplied all the evidence I could find and printed out a letter from the LA they wrote me and unfortunately the DM did not remove it from our capital and our UC were stopped and we got a £0 award.

I then made a Mandatory reconsideration and after many weeks of getting my MP involved and complaints they removed it from our capital and our UC were reinstated.

I was then told that each month we have to continue to declare our Daughters Direct payments as our money under money savings and investments and the the same process will happen again ie another DM will make their own judgement on wether to consider it our own capital and stop our UC or to remove it and I will need to provide evidence each time.

Ofcourse I have explained as they LA have that

A) We are not the legal or Beneficial Owners of the money

B) We can not spend on daily living costs and can only be spent on our Daughters care needs agreed by the LA

C) it is not a welfare support payment as Welfare support payments can be spent freely and the claimant own the money

D) Any underspend is returned to the LA

E) Local welfare support payments are not returned to the LA

F) I get it in lieu of a commissioned care service. UC does not require people to declare the value of the care service they receive. The DP money serves the same function as a commissioned care service. It is not income or savings. Instead of a local authority paying for a care service for my disabled daughters on my behalf, the money is given to me to pay for the care myself.

However the same person at the DWP said I still need to declare it as my own money each month and they decide if we are entitled to UC or not by either removing it or not.

The DWP regs are poorly drafted, and showed limited understanding of health and social care legislation.

As the DWP regs are so badly drafted, reflecting poor communication at policy level within Government between DWP and DHSC – and between DWP and the Local Government ie the LA.

This puts us under a huge burden and financial complications as ofcourse our UC is stopped while they do their checks and theres no knowing of what they will say and how many months it will take while our UC is stopped.

There was even someone who got Direct payments and stopped his payments and the first time agreed to remove them from his capital but the 2nd time a different DM choose not to and it ended up in a tribunal (attached) which ofcourse he won. I even showed this to the same DWP guy and he just ignored it.

What do we do? Follow the LA advice or what the guy from the DWP told me?

Yes I have spoken to Welfare rights and my MP and they said as its not an appeal against a decision yet to be made they cant help

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Tribunal_decision_03.02.2022 (1) (1) (1).pdf