lcrwa backdate

nadine6690

hi everyone thanks for your reply i’m new here so any advice would be very appreciated.. 

so i applied for uc in 2016 whilst a student wen my condition was as its worse after having to quit my  college /degree as my mum suddenly passed away and i gave birth in her funeral day which led to me becoming suicidal i was issued a fit note for three months and updated my journal around oct 2016 but was never offered a health assessment . over the following years i continually provided fit notes up until date however a work coachback in may 2021 raised in my journal  if i had new changes to health to ask for an assessment as i had been giving dates every month for years and  requesting a review or even a face to face assessment as i the call didn’t give me a chance to explain properly how i am affected daily . my worker stated the notes had remained the same for the last 6 years and to request to someone if i wanted to elaborate i was offered a work coach meeting which caused greater stress  i asked why was i providing fit notes but not being awarded the lcrwa  of my claim . i was offered a phone assessment and was put in the lcw group but no change to benefit amount which i asked for a MR for but the decision was not changed 

now thag i am able to communicate a bit more and ise electrnic devices which i avoided for years 
i appealed this last month and was awarded the 15 points for coping with change and put in the lcrwa group on friday 12th may and my appeal was closed 

the letter stated i met the criteria and the original decision has been changed i have been awarded from may 2020 ( god knows where this date came from) i assume it was from when i started to get pip which was may 2020 which confirmed i had lcw.

i provided my first my fit note with no gaps up to date since 08/10/16 so felt that i should have been awarded the lcrwa part from the date i first was declared sick from my gp.  after years of requesting an assessment which i only got over the phone and was completely not accurate in the first place i don’t know where these dates come from to backdate as i called them and they said 20 months i am owed but haven’t had a letter to confirm this only to say i was successful and the appeal is now closed 

nadine6690

it says in the new decision letter  i agree that i should have been awarded the lcrwa element from jan 2021 however i have asked in my journal for this to be reviewed as i have been reporting fit notes for the last 6 years and have over 40 pages of medical notes from my gp which elaborates on my conditions from 2016 to date but was never given the chance to show this as the appeal was closed and haven’t been offered a chance to give any further information which clearly shows i have been very ill since 2016 and any lcrwa from that time would have caused me great distress and so 6 years is not a reasonable time after applying to be finally given a decision considering my vulnerability at the time ,i was a care leaver studying for my degree when i fell ill and going through a number of other struggles at the time and was diagnosed with severe depression back in 2012 . i was paying £20 a day for electric for four years due to faulty storage heaters . this led to my kids having to stay with their dad who was causing me trouble at the time and social services involvement and i feel that i should have been awarded from 2016 so have requested through my journal before my final decision letter regarding amounts etc have been issued but haven’t had a response yet. my ap is 20/21 of every month and my pay date is 27th .

i received letter on 12th may 2022 saying i was successful and awarded from jan 2021 the lcrwa element and waiting a response for backdate request as on the tribunal form it doesnt  let you put a date . i now won’t get the chance  to give my evidence from 2016 onwards which will clearly show i met the criteria for the lcrwa in 2016 and have done since
 if this date is dismissed at this stage which i am sure it will be i feel 20 months is an unreasonable time frame for my award to be looked at and if i was awarded back in 2020 at the very least my health would have considerably improved since then . the ongoing financial stress has nobly increased my anxiety and depression  as i have only just managed to fix the electric problems this award would have actually been life changing for me as i could have used this to afford to live