Question about work capability assessment and work related activity payments — Scope | Disability forum
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Question about work capability assessment and work related activity payments

Voodoo101
Voodoo101 Community member Posts: 5 Listener
I have long time dealings with benefits as my wife is disabled and I care for her, however my daughter is also disabled and I have just applied for Universal Credit for her, but this new system is all new to me. We phoned on the first day to apply and was told to send a letter from her GP about her disability, she is on the enhanced rate of PIP, which we did stating that she is not able to work. A few days later we got informed that we had to send a fit note, which we did backdated to the claim date for six months, which was the maximum time allowed. Then we received a WCA form, which we completed and sent back. 

Her assessment period is 23rd to the 22nd of every month and on the 29th she received her first payment without any payment for her being unable to work. Today we received a letter stating that she had been assessed and it was decided that she was awarded the work capability assessment and the work related activity payment. The letter also states that the extra money is awarded 3 months after the date evidence was provided, which was the claim date. Does this mean that she will not ever get the money for the first three months, or is it backdated as all other benefits. When she claimed PIP, she did not get any money while they assessed her, however she received the money owed back dated to the claim date. The Universal Credit letter is a bit confusing and reads like they are never going to pay her for those three months, which seems a bit unfair. She never asked to be ill and had she been fit for work, then she could have 16 hours a week paid without losing anything.


Comments

  • calcotti
    calcotti Community member Posts: 10,010 Disability Gamechanger
    The extra money for LCWRA is not payable until the fourth month. This is essentially the same as the rules for old ESA for which the extra money for being in the Support Group was not payable until the 14th week.
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Rules may be different in other parts of UK.
  • janer1967
    janer1967 Community member Posts: 21,964 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi there 

    No she won't ever get the first 3 assessment periods paid that is the same for all awards for lcwra 
  • Voodoo101
    Voodoo101 Community member Posts: 5 Listener
    Thanks for you answers.

    Isn't that a bit of discrimination. If you are able to work, then you can work a bit and still get Universal Credit, but if you are disabled then you don't get paid for three months.
  • janer1967
    janer1967 Community member Posts: 21,964 Disability Gamechanger
    You do get paid uc its just the additional payment you don't get for first 3 months 

    Similar to PIP you get paid PIP from when you apply but you must have had the condition for at least 3 months before you can apply 
  • Voodoo101
    Voodoo101 Community member Posts: 5 Listener
    With PIP for both my wife and my daughter, their payments was backdated to the date the claim was made, and full payment was made. My daughters condition has been ongoing since 2015, so the it is well before the 3 months before she applied.

    Like I said, if she was able bodied then she could have worked a bit and had the UC on top, but because she is disabled and cannot work, then she is just able to claim the UC, which discriminates against people who are not able to work.

  • calcotti
    calcotti Community member Posts: 10,010 Disability Gamechanger
    Voodoo101 said:
    Like I said, if she was able bodied then she could have worked a bit and had the UC on top, but because she is disabled and cannot work, then she is just able to claim the UC, which discriminates against people who are not able to work.
    As already advised the three month wait for payment of additional money due to LCWRA is a long-standing feature of ESA which has been duplicated in UC. The only exception is for those who are terminally ill.
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Rules may be different in other parts of UK.
  • Voodoo101
    Voodoo101 Community member Posts: 5 Listener
     calcotti said:
    Voodoo101 said:
    Like I said, if she was able bodied then she could have worked a bit and had the UC on top, but because she is disabled and cannot work, then she is just able to claim the UC, which discriminates against people who are not able to work.
    As already advised the three month wait for payment of additional money due to LCWRA is a long-standing feature of ESA which has been duplicated in UC. The only exception is for those who are terminally ill.
    Like I said, I was not saying that I was not advised on this forum, what I was saying is that this seems a bit discriminatory. I don't really care whether it was a long standing thing of ESA or not, It does not matter, what matters is the fact that an able bodied person is able to go out to work and earn extra money, as can some disabled from the day they claim, but there are a proportion of people in this country that want to work but are unable. They do not have the luxury of earning extra money to live on, they have no choice. It is not policy that people cannot earn extra money during the first 3 months, this rule only effects the people who are unable to work.

    There was an outcry with people complaining when Universal Credit started because payments was delayed, payments that would be back dated, but it sees that disabled people who cannot work cannot claim the benefits they need to live on for three months, and as I write this there is a big purple banner at the bottom of the page that says "SCOPE = Equality for disabled people", which seems ironic.

    Lets put it this way. Person A is abled bodied 20 year old, they are out of work but it is OK because they can claim Universal Credit. From day 1 they are awarded £342.72. They go out and get a 16 hour a week job and get paid the minimum wage of £6.56 per hour, so over the first three months of their claim, they take home £2287.68. They can do that because they have the option. They may not be bothered in which they just get the basic, but they have the choice.

    Person B is a disabled 20 year old. They have a condition that puts them in pain 24 hours a day, or some other condition that means they cannot work or leave the house. They don't want that condition but circumstances have thrown it there way. They apply for Universal Credit because they would apply for Income Support, but can't because it has been wrapped up in Universal Credit. If they applied for Income Support then the amount they qualify for would be back dated to the claim date. They qualify for LCWRA which is not paid for three months. They get a total of £1028.16, they have no option to earn more, they do not have a choice.

    Tell me that that is equality. Maybe I am wrong, maybe I am tired, but I cannot see why this and ESA are not backdated to the date the claim was made. I'm sure there would be an outcry is they turned round and said that new claims for UC would not be paid for three month, but yet again, just as it was when DLA changed to PIP, it was the disabled that was walked over.
  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Community member Posts: 16,007 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @Voodoo101 - & welcome. Just to say the advice given above is absolutely correct. It's important to realise that PIP & UC are completely different benefits; they both can help people with a disability, but the criteria & timing of payments differ.
    Please see: https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Universal_Credit_Work_Capability_Assessment   & scroll down to the section 'Waiting period' for confirmation.

  • Voodoo101
    Voodoo101 Community member Posts: 5 Listener
    Never mind. I think the banner should read SCOPE=People who quote the same thing and don't really care about equality.
  • calcotti
    calcotti Community member Posts: 10,010 Disability Gamechanger
    edited April 2021
    Voodoo101 said:
     , 
    Lets put it this way. Person A is abled bodied 20 year old, they are out of work but it is OK because they can claim Universal Credit. From day 1 they are awarded £342.72. They go out and get a 16 hour a week job and get paid the minimum wage of £6.56 per hour, so over the first three months of their claim, they take home £2287.68. They can do that because they have the option. They may not be bothered in which they just get the basic, but they have the choice.
    You have ignored that Person A has an earnings deduction of £286 applied to their UC which is therefore reduced to £56/month.

    As regards the comments about ESA I made those because from your opening post it appeared that you thought this was specifically a UC problem. 
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Rules may be different in other parts of UK.
  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Community member Posts: 16,007 Disability Gamechanger
    edited April 2021
    Scope campaigns to help people with a disability. As far as comments here go, we're all singing from the same song sheet as the info given has been correct. Perhaps you don't know, but we all give our time here voluntarily trying to help other people, & many of us have a disability. Of course we all care about equality; sorry you don't see that.
  • janer1967
    janer1967 Community member Posts: 21,964 Disability Gamechanger
    We are all members of the scope community just like you are @Voodoo101 we do not work for scope . We just try and advise other members based on our own experience and knowledge 

    So quoting the banner isn't really relevant and any feedback to scope as an organisation should be directed to those who are responsible and not really to members of this community 


  • Adrian_Scope
    Adrian_Scope Posts: 10,821 Scope online community team
    Hello @Voodoo101
    I'm sorry there seems to be some confusion here, I understand you're not saying that members are wrong in the advice given, you're expressing frustration at the rule existing at all.
    I agree that the wait period seems unfair and I've never seen a good justification for it, I felt the same when it just applied to ESA. 

    The closest explanation I've seen is that for PIP, you typically need to have had the condition for at least 3 months before being eligible, so in actual fact there is technically a wait period there too.
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