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Can claimants choose to migrate early from legacy in Full Service areas?
Hi all, first post so thanks in advance for any pointers.
I have a couple of current cases where it appears the claimant would be better off under UC. Full Service commenced here this May.
The main one is a claimant who took on work earlier this year and exceeded the earnings limit for Carer’s Allowance. This claimant now gets a (minimal) amount of HB topped up by a defined period of DHP. This is their only legacy benefit entitlement.
My calculations appear to show that they would be significantly better off on UC due to the fact there is no work earnings cap for the UC Carer Element.
However the advice we are getting from our JC liaison is that migration can only happen with a new change of circumstances. I haven’t been able to find anything to help in the UC Regs. Schedule 6 of the WR Act seems to suggest it could go either way. A lot of the online stuff from CPAG etc. focuses (understandably) on trying to cling on to legacy benefits.
Can anybody kindly point me to some definitive advice here? I don’t want to risk the HB department getting notified and ceasing the claim if any UC claim is bound for failure.
Thanks again.
As far as I can see you can claim UC any time you like in full service: you don’t have to wait for a change of circumstance. The live service gateway conditions blocked new UC claims by people getting or in the process of claiming/appealing legacy benefits in most cases, but they don’t apply in full service. And even under the gateway conditions, it was possible for people currently getting HB without any DWP benefit to make a new UC claim.
Schedule 6 to the Act enables regulations to be made but I can see no regulatoins to stop this claimant, who is a completely new claimant as far as DWP are concerned, from claiming UC.
Even without the carer element, the claimant should be better off on UC because the 63% taper applies to the whole maximum award and not just the housing costs.
There was a thread on here the other day where it was reported that DWP is encouraging existing JSA claimants to switch to UC without waiting for a change of circumstance, so it doesn’t seem to be a universal view within DWP that you cannot claim UC without a change of circs.
Thanks Anorak.
I understood where Sch. 6 was going but I assumed I had missed out on the legislation it was proposing and couldn’t understand where it might be! Good to know I haven’t missed something new.
I will look for the thread on JSA you mentioned thanks. I am slightly worried because the info we have on migration only being triggered by change of circumstance I believe might come from the DWP themselves, so am hoping they aren’t working to incorrect guidance.
In any case, I’m probably going to give this a go then if the claimant wants to. A colleague has asked local Jobcentre staff who believe the claimant has to claim CA to get the UC Carer Element; I have the regs to challenge that if necessary but it maybe points to an uphill battle for some of these early non-standard cases in the new world.
I am slightly worried because the info we have on migration only being triggered by change of circumstance I believe might come from the DWP themselves, so am hoping they aren’t working to incorrect guidance.
that’s a fond hope - they work to incorrect guidance and misunderstanding/ignorance of the law regularly, it seems….