journal reporting / changes of circs

I have a client who was successful at appeal in getting PIP after 18 months wait.

his friend is on UC and i advised that she claim the carers element and request a backdate to the start of his backdated PIP claim.

UC are refusing to backdate, as when she claimed UC she did not declare she was a carer. When she made the claim 2 years ago she didn’t put down carer, as my client didn’t get PIP and there was no eligibility to carers allowance/element

As far as I’m concerned this UC question is aimed at people who claim carers allowance, or get carers element due to cared for getting PIP/DLA/AA. They say different. They say she should have reported that she was a carer from the start, and cos she didn’t then tough…..  Is there any legal basis for just writing off 18 months of entitlement?

I reckon they should revise and supersede the carers element due to entitlement, rather than put trick questions on claim forms and request meaningless journal updates.

thoughts?

See ADM A4, paragraph A4361, example 2:

“Connor has been in receipt of UC from 14.12.18. On 11.5.21 his daughter was awarded DLA at the middle rate from 8.2.21. He didn’t notify the change until 26.5.21. The DM is satisfed that Connor had regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person since 8.2.21 and so there is a clear and direct link between the award of DLA and entitlement to the carer element. The supersession effective date rule means that he did not have to report the change within a certain period. The UC award is superseded on the grounds of a relevant change of circumstances and the carer element is awarded from 14.1.21.”

If the friend is also eligible for Carer’s Allowance and is in time to make a backdated claim for that, they could also bring themselves within example 1:

“Sam has been in receipt of UC from 21.11.19. On 28.5.20 she was awarded CA from 30.3.20 meaning that she is also entitled to the carer element in UC. Sam didn’t notify the change until 24.9.20. The supersession effective date rule means that she did not have to
report the change within a certain period. The UC award is superseded on the grounds of a relevant change of circumstances and the carer element is awarded from 21.3.20.”

I think that a supersession of UC to include the carers element ‘effective from’ the date of the PIP award will work in this case if the client claims Carers Allowance and that is backdated to the date of the PIP award. CA can be backdated to the date of the award of the qualifying benefit where claimed within 3 months of the qualifying benefit decision.

That’s because Schedule 1, para 31 of the UC Decisions & Appeals Regs (upon which the examples in the ADM rely) applies where the ‘claimant or a member of their family becomes entitled to another relevant benefit’. If the claimants gets CA then CA is a ‘relevant benefit’ which entitles them to the carers element.

I think the PIP awarded to the friend can’t be the ‘relevant benefit’ in this case because the friend isn’t a member of the claimant’s family (which only includes partner and child/qyp). In the example of Connor, it is their child who has been awarded DLA, and so DLA is the relevant benefit.

If they are not claiming CA, could they instead report that they have started within the last 13 months to have caring responsibilities? Which would be a late report of a change of circumstances under Regs 23 and 36 of the D&A regs… although would have to satisfy all the ‘conditions’ for the time limit for reporting changes to be ‘extended’.