Merged UC claim - work income counted twice

Good morning

I have a case where a couple merged their separate existing UC claims and the weekly earned income for one partner appears to have been counted twice, in her final award period and in the ‘new’ award period, which is actually her partner’s existing assessment period. 

My understanding is that a ‘joined’ new claim ends both single claims, with both being backdated to the start of their respective assessment periods in which the change was reported, and creates a new claim using one of the existing periods (usually whichever re-starts soonest, as in this case).

The change was reported on the 22nd of the month.  The working partner (Mrs) had weekly pay and her assessment period ended on the 16th of each month, so her claim was ended from that date.  This included weekly income up to the 16th, as usual, and her final award used all of her weekly income up to that date.

Her new partner’s claim period (and the retained claim period) ended on the 5th of each month, so his claim was ended right back to the 5th of the same month.  The new joint claim started therefore on the 6th of that month, and income from both was used to assess that new claim, paid a month later. 

However, this means that there were two weekly pays paid between the 5th and 16th of the month which were used in the calculation for both Mrs final award AND the new joined award, because the ‘new’ claim with the retained dates starts before Mrs’ old claim ended.

This is borne out in the actual income details used for both awards, but doesn’t seem right, or fair.

My questions are….am I understanding how this works correctly, and if so is it correct in law that the same income can be used twice?  Is there a rule I can’t find (and I have looked, but it’s hard to know what key words to search to get a focussed response) that allows that income to be ignored in the new joined claim as it’s already been used to reduce a UC award in another claim?

Hope this makes sense.  It took me a while to get my head around the timeline.  Thanks in advance for any responses.  JB

I think you are correct that the income should be included in the new award.

I’m not even convinced that this isn’t fair. Remember, for the overlap period, they are getting two awards of UC simultaneously…

(As an aside, whenever I think about cases of couple formation and breakup, I always end up feeling dissatisfied with the framework provided by the legislation and how that fits with DWP’s insistence on treating such changes like any in other change of circumstances.
For example, in your case, how can the joint claim begin prior to them becoming a couple?)