Over £5,000 disregard rule?

Jen87

Hello,

bit of a complicated one - I was awarded over £8,000 in 2023, after realising I was entitled to the carers element on my claim. I had notified on the UC journal in 2018 of my carers status but they hasn’t applied the element and I wasn’t aware of its existence until 2023.

After so many messages and phonecalls I finally managed to get the entitlement backdated. After doing some research I came to the conclusion that that due to my backdated amount being an error of their behalf and also due to it being over 5,000 it was disregarded as capital for the length of my claim. I phoned in to clear this but they were extremely vague and didn’t give a proper answer.

I then had a claim review 18 months after being awarded the backdated payment and explained the extra funds to the agent who accepted the situation and made no change to my claim.

Fast forward 1 year, I am under review again but this time the lady dealing with me is specifying on the 52 week rule, even after numerous explanations.

I have now asked for my claim to be forwarded to someone more senior so that I can get a conclusion - became of the previous review I was under the impression that the 52 week rule didn’t apply to me due to it being an error to being with, but this time round they are trying to apply it.

My question is - was I wrong to begin with? All the information I gathered and the acceptance of the lady dealing with the first review made me think I could keep the funds and not overspend, but now I’m confused. Everyone says different things!

Also just to note, when they sent me the award letter for the backdated amount - they stated it was due to ‘reporting late’ which is not true, only I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I do have proof on my journal when I updated being a carer in 2018 and it was failed to be added.

Thank you and kind regards

chiarieds

Hi @Jen87 - you are correct.

As can be seen in reg 10a below such a payment of arrears of £5000 or over is disregarded as capital for 12 months from the date of receipt of the payment, or until the termination of the current award (if later) i.e. until your current UC ends.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1230/regulation/10A

Hope this helps, & please quote the above regulation.

Jen87

Hello,

Thank you for your message which was reassuring - I explained all this to them including the legislation, however they are still citing the standard 52 week rule. I’m really not sure what else I can say to them.

I’ve explained the arrears were due to an error on their behalf, was over £5000 and also have mentioned the legislation, but they have just sent me a generic message citing the 52 week rule

‘Under Universal Credit rules, arrears of certain benefits are treated as capital and are disregarded for 12 months from the date they are paid.’

please could someone let me know what I can do from here.

thank you and kind regards

Kimi87

Ask for a Mandatory Reconsideration of the decision not to follow the quoted regulations with regards to disregarding your backpay.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/benefits-introduction/problems-with-benefits-and-tax-credits/challenging-benefit-decisions/challenging-a-decision-by-the-dwp-or-hmrc/challenging-a-benefit-decision-mandatory-reconsideration

SheffieldMan1976

It really grinds my stick that it appears the DWP aren't even aware of their own rules… Smh,

Jen87

They really aren’t aware of this rule and just don’t want to implement it. I’ve asked to be referred to a decision maker 3 times now but instead received a phone call from another reviewer yesterday who again pressed on the 52 week rule and asked me where I saw the information about a longer disregard. She said I can’t ask for a mandatory reconsideration as a decision hasn’t been made yet, so fingers crossed they pass it to the relevant department and it gets resolved.

It’s just unnecessary stress as this has been going on since the beginning of January and nobody is acknowledging the correct rules :(

Kimi87

You could try reaching out to your MP for assistance.