Over £5,000 disregard rule?

Jen87
Jen87 Community Member Posts: 12 Connected
in Universal Credit (UC)

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

Comments

  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Community Member Posts: 17,415 Championing

    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
    Jen87 Community Member Posts: 12 Connected

    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
    Kimi87 Community Member Posts: 9,066 Championing
    edited March 13

    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

  • Jen87
    Jen87 Community Member Posts: 12 Connected

    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
    Kimi87 Community Member Posts: 9,066 Championing

    You could try reaching out to your MP for assistance.

  • Jen87
    Jen87 Community Member Posts: 12 Connected

    Hello,

    Would love just a bit of further advice carrying on from my above issue - since March I requested a DM to look into my case so that they could hopefully apply the disregard properly. I didn’t hear anything for a few months, so while I waited I asked for my local MP to chase it up and also got some advice from citizens advice who echoed what was said here on the forum and recommended I wait and then ask for a MR.

    Meanwhile I finally heard back from the DM who requested 2 years worth of statements alongside what they already had from my previous review. I had a phone call from the DM this morning and honestly since then I’ve been in a bit of a state. She was polite enough but asked me so many questions of transactions in and out of my account from 2 years ago, and as I didn’t realise the call was going to be about this I was not prepared and didn’t even remember half of the in going’s or outgoings. I’m pretty sure I confused a few family accounts up too in hindsight as some of us have the same initials and surnames. So now I’m super worried about that also.

    after the phonecall she left a message on my journal thanking me for the phonecall and asked for another 4 months worth of statements going even further back to around 8 months after I recieved the arrears.

    I’ve sent those off but I’m just so confused and a little bit shaken. I thought my escalating this issue was more to do with correcting the arrears as being disregarded, and less to do with going through years of my expenditure. I have a large family and we transfer money to each other so regularly.

    I’m just wondering is this a normal Decision Maker review and what I can expect going forward. Like I said before this whole issue started with me being underpaid from 2018 - 2023, and when they finally corrected and finally awarded the arrears, it’s been further stress trying to explain the extra money to the same people. It just feels like years of stress from them, I’m starting to spiral and just want it all to come to an end now


    thanks

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