LCWRA and non return of 3 previous UC50’s

Hi

A client claimed UC in July 2020.  In December 2020 she was sent a UC50 which she didn’t complete.  Two more UC50’s were sent in January & February 2021 which again she didn’t complete.  In February 2021 they closed the “health journey”. 

In June 2021 she did return a UC50, the client isn’t sure if this was one of the forms she’d been sent earlier (nothing on her journal to state a UC50 had been issued).

This June 2021 was chased up by the client via her journal and she received a response from her work coach stating there was no record of it as yet.

During this time the client continued to provide fit notes howeevr there appears to be a gap from February to June 2022 and from Sept 2023 to February 2024.

In February 2024 a new work coach told her to report a change in her health; the work coach did this for her and this led to a new UC50 & WCA and the LCWRA was finally awarded from June 2024 payment.

It’s a long shot but are there any grounds for getting the LCWRA backdated to when the UC50 was submitted in June 2021?  The client has STM difficulties following a serious RTA, hearing loss and mental health difficulties.  She doesn’t have any proof that she posted the June 2021 UC50 and she cannot recall why there are gaps in her fit notes…sometimes she struggled to upload them so took them to the job centre but again nothing on the journal to state this.

Thanks

LCWRA is payable three months after the date on which medical evidence of LCW was first provided. I don’t really see why there would be backdating based on when an unsolicited UC50 was submitted.

I think if you are going to argue for some massive amount of backdating, then you need to do that on the basis that your client has been providing medical evidence of LCW throughout - all the way back to December 2020 - with the gaps being fudged in some way.

You said that the “health journey was closed” - but was a decision actually made that your client was deemed not to have LCW by reason of a failure to return the UC50 under reg 43?

Hi Elliot

A decision was made in February 2021 for failure to return the UC50.

The client then didn’t submit a UC50 until June 2021 which never arrived.

Thanks
Jo