LCWRA possible backdated pay and help regarding payments

RedBoss
RedBoss Online Community Member Posts: 5 Listener
in Universal Credit (UC)
Hello all newbie here. I had a WCA the other day and got my answer back to having LCWRA on 24/2/22 on my journal. 

My assessment period is 26th-25th and I'm paid on 1st of each month. 

My first sick note was accepted on 24/9/21 as well as my 'reported health change'. The sick note ran from 23/9/21 to 31/10/21

I've been reading some posts on here and wasn't aware you had to continously provide sick notes as I work part time (12hrs pw) so didn't think I needed to continously provide them and have only uploaded 1 note to my UC account. 

My questions are ;

Will I be eligible for any backpay? As I read the first 3 months (sep-oct Oct-Nov Nov-Dec) you are not entitled but if it takes longer than 3 months you are entitled to backpay so would that be Dec-Jan and Jan-Feb, 2 months backpay? 

My second question is  will my first lcwra  payment be on the 1/3/22 or will it be on the payment after 1/4/22?

Thank you for your help it would be very appreciated :smile:

Comments

  • calcotti
    calcotti Online Community Member Posts: 10,000 Championing
    edited February 2022
    You should have been receiving prompts on your UC journal to provide Fit Notes.

    You reported in the August-Sept assessment period. The three months wait is September to December. LCWRA would be payable from December to January assessment period which would be payable on 1st February. Whether they will do this in the absence of Fit Notes remains to be seen.

    Any arrears will be paid separately to your next regular payment.

    If you don’t already have one you will now be entitled to a Work Allowance which means each month the first £335 (if you get help with rent) or £557 (if you don’t) of your earnings will be ignored. This would normally be backdated to when you reported the health condition.

    What date does the letter say you have LCWRA from?

    Note that when DWP recalculate your previous months the new statements will overwrite the old ones. If you want a record of the old ones you should take copies now.
  • RedBoss
    RedBoss Online Community Member Posts: 5 Listener
    I was only ever prompted to give the first sick note to start the WCA process, oh well I don't mind missing out on a bit of backpay, thank you for the swift reply!

    I don't think I've received the letter stating when it starts to be fair, only received the journal update with the pdf of me being awarded LCWRA.

    So is the work allowance amount (£557) as single with no housing costs backdated to when I first reported the health change (24/9/21) and this ignores the 3 AP / month wait? 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    edited February 2022
    RedBoss said:

    So is the work allowance amount (£557) as single with no housing costs backdated to when I first reported the health change (24/9/21) and this ignores the 3 AP / month wait? 

    Yes, whether there will be issues with this because you didn't continue to send the fits notes i don't know.
    I don't understand why you didn't receive reminders about the fit notes. When my daughter sent fit notes a couple of weeks before they ran out, i was receiving reminders on her journal.
  • RedBoss
    RedBoss Online Community Member Posts: 5 Listener
    poppy123456 said:
    RedBoss said:

    So is the work allowance amount (£557) as single with no housing costs backdated to when I first reported the health change (24/9/21) and this ignores the 3 AP / month wait? 

    Yes, whether there will be issues with this because you didn't continue to send the fits notes i don't know.
    I don't understand why you didn't receive reminders about the fit notes. When my daughter sent fit notes a couple of weeks before they ran out, i was receiving reminders on her journal.
    I am not too sure, I have checked my journal and I got a notice of expiry of the sick note but was not prompted to upload another and it wasn't in my commitments/to do list. My work coach also didn't tell me I would have to continue to upload sick notes. could it be because I am working part time at the moment? Would UC/DWP accept a backdated sick note if needed?


  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    edited February 2022
    If you click "fit note expiry" it should tell you on there that you need to report another. Working 12 hours/week wouldn't have caused the problem.
    I don't know if backdated fit notes will be accepted now.
  • RedBoss
    RedBoss Online Community Member Posts: 5 Listener
    poppy123456 said:
    If you click "fit note expiry" it should tell you on there that you need to report another. Working 12 hours/week wouldn't have caused the problem.
    I don't know if backdated fit notes will be accepted now.
    Okay no worries, I'm just glad that I've been accepted to being entitled to it and can finally carry on with my life. Thank you for your help it's really appreciated :smile:
  • calcotti
    calcotti Online Community Member Posts: 10,000 Championing
    edited February 2022
    RedBoss said: I don't think I've received the letter stating when it starts to be fair, only received the journal update with the pdf of me being awarded LCWRA.
    Does that not say when from?
    RedBoss said:
    So is the work allowance amount (£557) as single with no housing costs backdated to when I first reported the health change (24/9/21) and this ignores the 3 AP / month wait? 
    That should be the case, as previously advised
    calcotti said:
    If you don’t already have one you will now be entitled to a Work Allowance which ...would normally be backdated to when you reported the health condition.
    Whether or not the absence of a Fit Notes makes a difference remains to be seen
  • RedBoss
    RedBoss Online Community Member Posts: 5 Listener
    edited February 2022
    calcotti said:
    RedBoss said: I don't think I've received the letter stating when it starts to be fair, only received the journal update with the pdf of me being awarded LCWRA.
    Does that not say when from? 
    I don't believe it does show the date unless I'm reading this wrong? I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to stuff like this so apologies if I'm missing something 

  • calcotti
    calcotti Online Community Member Posts: 10,000 Championing
    edited February 2022
    No it doesn’t does it - pretty poor really.

    The paragraph saying extra money is awarded from 3 months after reporting the health condition is also very badly written such as to make it inaccurate. The law actually says the extra money is not payable for the three complete assessment periods after the health condition is reported. It is therefore only payable for the fourth full assessment period which is of course paid a week after the end of that period. If someone reports a health condition near the beginning of an assessment period they will not actually be paid any extra money until about 5 months after reporting the health condition.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    calcotti said:
    RedBoss said: I don't think I've received the letter stating when it starts to be fair, only received the journal update with the pdf of me being awarded LCWRA.
    Does that not say when from?
    No, my daughter's decision letter didn't say when the LCWRA was from.
  • calcotti
    calcotti Online Community Member Posts: 10,000 Championing
    poppy123456 said: No, my daughter's decision letter didn't say when the LCWRA was from. 
    Thanks for confirming. That's very poor.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    calcotti said:
    poppy123456 said: No, my daughter's decision letter didn't say when the LCWRA was from. 
    Thanks for confirming. That's very poor.

    Agreed. I didn't actually realise until you mentioned it and then looked.
  • tracey1972
    tracey1972 Online Community Member Posts: 4 Listener
    I'm on u/c and been unable to work since Feb 22/02.2022.  Work assessment done awarded lcwra on 23/  09/2022. My uc  is 19th every month I had no extra in my payment 19/10/2022. So when excaly am k due extra payment 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    tracey1972 said:
    I'm on u/c and been unable to work since Feb 22/02.2022.  Work assessment done awarded lcwra on 23/  09/2022. My uc  is 19th every month I had no extra in my payment 19/10/2022. So when excaly am k due extra payment 

    If there were no gaps in your fit notes then the extra money will be paid from 19th July. However, in your previous thread you said you had the decision on 23/9/2022 but in this thread you said you had the decision on 8th Oct. If you had the decision on 8th Oct there may not have been enough of time to include the LCWRA element to your statement, which maybe why you didn't receive it this month.
    As i also advised in your other thread it often takes a few weeks to pay what they owe you because they need to recalculate your past statements to work out how much they've already paid you against what you should have been paid. You will then receive the difference between the two.
    Put a message on your journal under the payment section and ask about the LCWRA element. Tell them it should be paid from July and you didn't receive it in this months statement.
    My above advice is assuming you're not claiming UC with a partner that already has the LCWRA element on your claim because you can only receive one element per claim.


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