UC OR HB

One of our customers is receiving Income Support claim made 03/04/18.  Jobcentre helped with housing benefit claim but LA has never received claim.  We moved to Full Service on 30/05/18 and because no hb claim received does our customer now need to claim UC?

If the IS claim procedure went according to plan, HB should have been claimed at the same time as IS on the same document: the “customer statement” signed at the first DWP appointment is a claim for both HB and IS.  The claim for HB is made at the DWP - it does not matter how long it takes for it to reach the Council.  The system should generate an input document for the Council which basically reproduces the HB-relevant parts of the customer statement, but the input document is not the claim - the claim has already been made at the DWP office.

So if we were to complete HB claim for with a backdate they should pay on the basis IS has been in payment for that period.

If the Council accept on balance of probability that the claimant at least took steps to indicate an intention to claim HB before 30/5, yes they should get HB. The claimant cannot make the first move to claim HB from 30/5 onwards, even if the claim would be backdated. But they can complete a claim that was initiated before that date.