LCWRA and UC question

Mrevertonone

Hi Guys, 
You very kindly answered my question last time about when we will get our LCWRA payment and thats in December, my question is i just checked our UC payment on our journal and we get about £34 a month as i work full time, just seen payment for this month is £237, and i see there is a work allowence of £344 on there,ive looked online and dont understand what it is, does that £344 come out of my partners LCWRA payment of £354, i just a little bit confused
Thanks in advance

Sean

poppy123456

If your UC includes help with the rent your work allowance is £344, if you don't it's £573. It means that you can receive that amount of earnings each month before the 55% deductions apply.

For example if you receive £1,000 of earnings each month then only £666 (lower work allowance) of that will used for the 55% deductions. For the higher work allowance only £427 of earnings will be used for the 55% deductions.

See link. https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/how-your-earnings-affect-your-payments

Mrevertonone

Thank you Poppy,
So just to clarify the £344 work allowance is on top of my partners £354 LCWRA money, or does that work allowance come off the £354 LCWRA money ? sorry to sound stupid, but UC dont make it is easy to understand, so the extra £203 in our money this time will be on top of the £354, or have i totally misunderstood

poppy123456

The £354 is extra in your UC and will be included in your maximum UC entitlement because UC is one benefit with many different elements. The £344 isn't taken off any elements. It's an amount that's disregarded from the earnings deduction.

Mrevertonone said:

so the extra £203 in our money this time will be on top of the £354,

Yes but remember that UC is based on earnings received each month. If your earnings increase you will receive less UC, if the decrease you will receive more.

Mrevertonone

Thank you Poppy, you have been a great help

calcotti

Just to add a further note of explanation. The Work Allowance (WA) is applied to your claim if you have children or if you been found to have LCW or LCWRA.

I infer that you don’t have children so haven’t had the WA before.

Note also that although there is a waiting period for the LCWRA element to be paid the LCWRA status itself should be applied from when you reported the health condition. The WA should be backdated and this means that you should be owed arrears from previous months.

Once UC have done the calculations they will post new statements for earlier periods on your journal. The new statements will replace earlier ones so if you want to be able to refer to them you should download copies now.

The WA of £344 increases your monthly UC by £189.20.

Mrevertonone

Thank you calcotti, thats a big help

Mrevertonone

UPDATE:
Just had a message in my journal re back dated work allowance, thats been sorted and back dated 3 months, next message from our work coach has confused me, this is what he said 
I did not answer your question the UCD81 does not say once LCWRA is awarded there is a 91 day waiting period, any arrears built up within this period will be paid in the first clear assessment period after 10/02/2023, does that make sense to anyone? 

Thank you in advance

Sean

Mrevertonone

Another message from our work coach,
Hello Sean
It has not been processed yet, Jo got the award  29/10/2022 from this date its 91 days before you receive payment, any arrears from the date LCWRA awarded which is not on your account yet will be paid in the first clear assessment 10/2/2023, i thought her first payment would be December like everyone on here said, i have sent a message asking for a clearer explanation and why isnt the first payment in December and if there will be any back payment if we receive her first payment in Feb 2023!

Thanks again everyone

Sean

Mrevertonone

Another message from our work coach....
Hello Sean
It will be backdated to the date awarded from which has not been processed by the team that deals with LCWRA, when that happens it will create an underpayment, this one is not simple as different departments complete the work.
Im still none the wiser as to whats happening and if and when we will get paid, will there be any back payments, and does anyone know how much LCWRA money we will get on 10/2/23...as ive got no idea
Why cant they make the process a lot easier for people!

Thank you again everyone

Sean

poppy123456

That is not correct and they are starting to become extremely annoying because they constantly get their rules completely wrong!!

The waiting period starts from when you reported your health condition, provided by a fit note within 7 days of that. It doesn't start from when the decision was made.

Mrevertonone

Hi Poppy,
I thought i was going mad! Any suggestions what to say to my work coach? as ive explained to him, ive been told the waiting time starts when the health condition was added and a fit note provided at the time

Thank you 

Sean

poppy123456

You can request the Mandatory Reconsideration of that decision on your journal. Another decision maker will then take a look and come to another decision. When you request it tell them exactly what you said here and the exact date the condition was reported and what date the first fit note was sent.

calcotti

Remember that the Work Coaches do not do the calculations. You really want any discussion with DWP to be in response to messages posted as payment queries and I though these were dealt with by Case Managers rather than Work Coaches.

If you do want to post a message along the following:
You previous message says that Jo got the LCWRA award on 29/10/2022 and that it is 91 days from this date before he receives payment of the LCWRA element. My understanding is that the waiting period is from the date the health condition was reported supported by the Fit Note which was on xx/x/xxxx. Please refer to Advice to Decision Makers paragraph F5031.

Mrevertonone

Hi Poppy and calcotti
Thank you both
Silly question where abouts on my journal do i request the MR bit, is it on payments ? or can i just add it to my journal?

calcotti

I would not MR it yet. At the moment you just seem to have an exchange of messages with your Work Coach. I would post the message I suggested earlier as a payment query. If they come back still saying that it's not due until February I would then post a similar message but stating that you want to request a Mandatory Reconsideration of that decision. My inclination is to again post any MR as a payment query but others may have different views on that.

Mrevertonone

Hi calcotti,

The last few messages have been through payments and all the replies ive posted are by the case manager,
i have sent a nice message to him asking can he looked into this again as ive been advised the waiting period starts from declaring Jo's health condition and sending in the fit note at the same time, i will await his reply, i will keep you posted what he says, and then ill ask again for your advice

Thank you again

Sean

poppy123456

Mrevertonone said:

 i will keep you posted what he says, and then ill ask again for your advice

If they don't change the date when it's paid from then you do the MR as there's no other advice to give other than what has already been advised.

Mrevertonone

Hi calcotti,

I forgot to say, because of Jo getting LCWRA i now get the work allowance, and they have backdated that to 10th July to 9th October, so they know when Jo declared her health condition, if not they wouldnt have back dated the work allowance and paying us 

Thank you again 
Sean

calcotti

Mrevertonone said:

I forgot to say, because of Jo getting LCWRA i now get the work allowance, and they have backdated that to 10th July to 9th October, so they know when Jo declared her health condition, if not they wouldnt have back dated the work allowance and paying us 

It's all very muddled thinking on their part!

Mrevertonone said:

The last few messages have been through payments and all the replies ive posted are by the case manager,
i have sent a nice message to him ..

I though you sad Work Coach in your earlier posts - sorry if I misunderstood.
Did you quote the reference in Advice for Decision Makers? 

Mrevertonone

Hi calcotti,

Yes i copied what you said and added the date of 26th July 2022, lets see what they say on Monday, as ive had no response yet.

Thank you again

Sean