Student and LCWRA

Cl had UC with LCWRA plus PIPS before becoming a full time student and would have continued to be paid UC after starting his course but for his student income. This claim has now been closed by UC after a period of zero payments and we can’t see any details.

Acting on advice from (I think) the Jobcentre he made fresh claim at the start of the long vacation when Reg 68 would come into play and his Student loan would be disregarded. This claim was refused as he was a ‘student in full time education’ with no further explanation.

There is no debate about PIPS, he is currently getting it but he also needs to get LCWRA to satisfy Reg14. He has not been reassessed as not having LCWRA and nor has he taken up work or anything else that might end his LCWRA status.

The question is then whether his LCWRA status has continued after his first claim was closed - any thoughts or observations gratefully received

(As a protective measure he has re applied for UC with a note to ask them to reconsider the last claim as he comes under Reg 14)

Hi Pete

I think this question was answered in a previous thread Can LCWRA continue with new UC claim if previous UC claim stopped?

Do come back to us on how you get on - looks like an issue that arises a lot but unclear whether advisors are having much success rectifying.

Thanks

An update- my cl reclaimed UC and has been awarded it without any fuss. They are still a FT student but because they are in the long vacation no student income is applied so all well and good but for the following-

Firstly I assume that the LCWRA is still counted as ‘live’ or no payment would be made (this is what happened on their previous claim, it was rejected as the cl was ‘a full time student’)

If this is the case and the cl still has LCWRA then why is no LCWRA element being paid?

Has this happened to anyone else and am I missing something? 

thanks

How long has it been since the previous award of UC terminated due to income?

Charles - 08 July 2024 01:34 PM

How long has it been since the previous award of UC terminated due to income?

We actually dont know this with any certainty, the cl came in to see us in May ‘24 about something else and mentioned that UC had stopped. We couldn’t get any information from the cl about the date and the claim was closed so we could not see any of the previous details.

I have assumed that its was closed due to student income as this seems to be the most likely explanation. This probably means it stopped at the beginning of the term but we dont know when that was.

Reg 27 of the UC regs just says that if the claimant has been found to have LCWRA under Pt 5 then the element is payable.  Given that they have made a payment, and by this we assume that the cl has LCWRA , then I would have thought that the LCWRA element would be automatic.

I don’t think it is automatic. There are many cases where a claimant can be treated as having LCWRA, but still has to wait for the relevant period to end under Reg 28.

However, if entitlement under the previous award ended within the 6 months before the new award commences, then that doesn’t apply - see Reg 28(4).

Charles - 08 July 2024 05:03 PM

I don’t think it is automatic. There are many cases where a claimant can be treated as having LCWRA, but still has to wait for the relevant period to end under Reg 28.

However, if entitlement under the previous award ended within the 6 months before the new award commences, then that doesn’t apply - see Reg 28(4).

Thanks for the reply, I found Reg 28 5mins after my last post!

I am waiting for the dates- there are in fact two calim dates, one which was wrongly rejected and a fresh one which wasn’t- I hope that even if the second one was out of time the first one might be