LCWRA and backpay

rebroxx

Hi,

Making a post for my friend who is experiencing some issues with universal credit and LCWRA and any help is appreciated.

For info purposes his assessment period is 21st to the 20th of each month. He first gave his fit note in February 2022. He was awarded LCWRA in June 2022.

However universal credit will only give him the extra money from assessment period 21st September on wards. 

They have stated that he is in a relevant period of 90 days from the day of his assessment award in June. 

'This means from  the date of the award you must serve a 90 day relevant period prior to having any increase in payments for the awarded element'.

However according to the award letter they sent in June and the legislation I've read for regulation 28 (2), is that the 3 month relevant period is from the fit note, not his award. 

Everywhere I have searched I have been given the info that it is 3 assessment periods from the first fit note, but he is being told it is only from the award.

I feel like he is due back pay from 3 months after his fit note, however there were a few interruptions between fit notes, these were back dated though, I'm not sure if this changes anything.

Which is correct?

Thank you

calcotti

The LCWRA element is payable from the fourth complete assessment period after the health condition was reported. This means it is payable in June or July depending on when it was reported in February.

Challenge it by posting a query in the journal as a payments question.

poppy123456

Part of the rules are that you must continue to send fit notes without any gaps until the decision is made. The gaps in the fits notes could be the reason why the wait has been longer because they would start the waiting period from when they were continuous. Backdating the fit notes may not help. It would be down to a decision maker to make the final decision. 

Without the gaps the extra money would be payable from either June or July depending on the exact date he sent his first fit note. 

How long were the gaps in the fit notes? 

calcotti

I missed the bit about gaps in the Fit Notes. I would challenge it anyway.

Alex_Alumni

Hello there @rebroxx and welcome to the community, thanks for reaching out

Have the replies here been helpful for you, or is there anything else you're unsure about or need a hand with?

Keep us updated with how you get on when you know more, and please ask any questions, we're here to help.

Alex

rebroxx

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I have a very thorough look through his journal and unfortunately it does seem like there was a gap of fit notes between April 7th and June 15th (just before his assessment in june). I feel like this then may he the issue. 

Due to his mental health and the reason he got LCWRA to begin  with, he was not great at meeting the requirements for tasks in his journal in a timely matter. Its very sad as he could really use this money. Fit notes were often later or in one case not supplied.

Is there any point in fighting it?

First fit note was February 17th 2022. 

I have since become his advocate to help him express his needs to the DWP in the journal as well as face to face and phone calls, as well as gathering as much support from outside services  as I can. I will be helping him apply for pip which should help his financial situation too. 

poppy123456

That makes sense why they have started the LCWRA element from assessment period 21st September to 22nd October. First payment will be 27th October.

He can challenge that decision by posting a message on his journal under the payment section or request the Mandatory Reconsideration. It will be down to a decision maker to make the final decision on whether to start it from the earlier date. Though with just over a 2 month gap he may not be successful.