Been awarded LWCRA need help

noobautist

Hello, I recieved a letter on my online journal about 3 days ago stating I have been awarded LWCRA and that I'll recieve a letter in 7 days explaining if I'm owed any money.

Online I get quite a lot of conflicting information, some places are saying you get your first pay three months after initially providing medical evidence, I assume by medical evidence this means a doctors fit note, if this is the case I made both the claim and submitted the note on the 7th of November 2020 but have been claiming UC since about January 2020.

My question is will I expect to be paid the limited work on my next payment? I get paid every 2 weeks also will I be backdated? I literally know nothing of the process please help guys

poppy123456

HI,

It's unlikey that you will be owed any backdated money but i can't tell you for certain without knowing your assessment period dates. Or the exact date in which you claimed UC in January 2020 and then i'll know when your assessment periods are.

You providing evidence in November but the waiting period is 3 full assessment periods and then the LCWRA is paid from the 4th month of your claim.

noobautist

"You providing evidence in November but the waiting period is 3 full assessment periods and then the LCWRA is paid from the 4th month of your claim."

Sorry to sound dumb but could you simplify this for me please? I read this quite a bit online but can't really make sense of what is meant by full assessment periods, does it mean if you apply in nov you shouldn't get first payment until March?

poppy123456

When claiming UC the start of your assessment period starts on the very first day you started your claim ( for you this will be sometime in January 2020) this will then last for 30 days. So if you started your claim on 10th January 2020, your AP dates will be 10th to 9th of the month. It will also tell you on your journal when your AP dates are. 

Edit to explain further. If for EG your AP dates are 10th-9th, putting your fit note in on the 7th of November then that AP doesn't count, therefore the 3 month period will then start from the following month because it has to be 3 full APs.

I'll happily help further if you can tell me those exact dates of your AP or when you first claimed UC in January 2020.

poppy123456

basket123 said:

I was informed when my referral was done by Universal credit for LWCRA, that it was after 3 months waiting.
mine should of been paid this last week, but wasn’t, so have let them know as requested to do.
but I will still receive a certain amount from Universal Credits
but can guess each case and circumstance is different.

When you report a health condition, your work coach is supposed to refer you 29 days after that, although this doesn't always happen that quick. The LCWRA element is then paid from the 4th month of your claim starting from when you first sent evidence of that health condition. Everyone's assessment periods are different so each indiividual claim will be different.

noobautist

poppy123456 said:

When claiming UC the start of your assessment period starts on the very first day you started your claim ( for you this will be sometime in January 2020) this will then last for 30 days. So if you started your claim on 10th January 2020, your AP dates will be 10th to 9th of the month. It will also tell you on your journal when your AP dates are. 

Edit to explain further. If for EG your AP dates are 10th-9th, putting your fit note in on the 7th of November then that AP doesn't count, therefore the 3 month period will then start from the following month because it has to be 3 full APs.

I'll happily help further if you can tell me those exact dates of your AP or when you first claimed UC in January 2020.

My very first Assessment period: 19 July to 18 August 2019 but I am not sure if this is for a previous claim, this is on my journal, but 99% of them afterwards are for the 8th/25th every month, some AP's show 9 instead of 8 but vast majority are 8

poppy123456

If you make another claim for UC within 6 months of your previous one ending then you keep the same assessment periods, regardless of when your 2nd claim was started.

If your AP dates are 19th to 18 of the month and you put you sent evidence on 7th November your waiting period will look like this.

19th October to 18 November ... doesn't count because you put you reported the health condition in the middle of the month.

19th November to 18th December = 1 month

19th December to 18th January = 2 months

19th January to 18th february = 3 months

19th February to 18th March LCWRA starts and will be recieved in this payment. I note that you receive payments twice which means it's just split in 2, with 15 days apart from each payment.

Either way, there is no backdated money owed. Hope this helps and great news on the decision by the way!

noobautist

I have a message in my journal saying "your payment will start on 19/02/2021 to 18/03/2021" in regards to lwcra, so I will be paid this on a different date from my UC? Is it biweekly in the same way my uc is or is it a monthly?

Also interestingly I recieved a letter on my journal saying I am entitled to the work element of UC again so I am owed £123 on Tuesday, despite having an advanced payment  does this mean they will now take the payments from my lwcra instead or is it still UC? can I have a rough idea how much I'll have a month if I had an advance of £340 with £311.66 to repay?

Thank you

poppy123456

So my calculation was correct. As you recieve your payments twice monthly the payments are divided into 2 equal payments, rather than 1 payment. So you will be entitled to an extra £341 per month. To know what you'll receive just divide the total amount by 2.

As you work then yes you will also have the work allowance, (not work element) , which means you can earn a certain amount of money each month before the 63% deductions apply.The work allowance is £292 per month if you claim the housing element or £512 per month if you don't receive the housing element.

Info here regarding that. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Work-allowance-Universal-Credit

Any debt owed will be a percentage of your standard allowance.

noobautist

I do not work. I am unemployed, also I do not earn housing benefit I live with parents

poppy123456

So the work allowance doesn't apply to you.

noobautist

So why did I recieve a letter today stating this 

19 December 2020 to 18 November 2020. This is because you 

are now entitled to the work allowance element for UC. 

poppy123456

It's called the work allowance, not the work element. Yes, you are entitled to it if you work but you're not working so it doesn't apply to you. If you read the link i posted above it will explain what the work allowance is.

If you're a single person then the elements you'll be entitled to is the standard element and the LCWRA element.

noobautist

So with the 311 left to repay for the advance would you say combined I get at least 400-500 per month? Single, 20 and living with parents 

poppy123456

Single person standard allowance (under 25's) £342.72 and LCWRA element £341.92 = £684.64 per month. You would need to deduct your repayment from that amount because i've no idea how much you pay back each month.

Also do be aware that the standard allowance of UC has been increased by about £90 due to Covid19 and is expected to return to it's normal amount from April 2021. From April it will be approximately £255 per month. Unless they decide to continue with the increase further than April 2021. ,